Huckabee Gets Boost in Poll, Moves in Front
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — The Republican presidential race is opening wider than ever, with a new poll showing that Michael Huckabee is leading in Iowa and the largest newspaper in New Hampshire endorsing a candidate whose campaign had all but collapsed four months ago, Senator McCain.
The Iowa poll, conducted by the Des Moines Register, showed Mr. Huckabee with a five-point lead, 29% to 24%, over Mitt Romney, who had consistently led surveys in the state for months. The former Arkansas governor jumped 17 points from the newspaper’s previous poll in October, and his rapid rise has prompted Mr. Romney to deliver a major speech this week outlining his views on religious liberty and how his Mormon beliefs would inform his presidency. While Mr. Romney appears to have lost his lead in Iowa, the first voting state, he has maintained an advantage in New Hampshire, which holds a primary five days later in January. But he suffered a blow there as well yesterday when the New Hampshire Union Leader threw its support to Mr. McCain in a front-page editorial. The Arizona senator has made the state his waterloo as he comes back from a cash shortfall and exodus of top advisers that befell his campaign over the summer.
Mr. McCain’s resurgence is cause for concern for Mr. Romney, but for now, the former Massachusetts governor may be most worried about Mr. Huckabee and the religion issue.
RELATED: The Menagerie of Michael Huckabee (jpeg)
Mr. Romney has faced questions about his faith throughout the 11-month campaign, but he has publicly wavered on whether he would give an address similar to the one that John F. Kennedy delivered in 1960 on his way to becoming the nation’s first Catholic president. The campaign announced the speech yesterday, saying that Mr. Romney personally decided on it last week and that it would take place Thursday at the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University. The 41st president will introduce Mr. Romney, the campaign said, although he is not endorsing his candidacy.
“This speech is an opportunity for Governor Romney to share his views on religious liberty, the grand tradition religious tolerance has played in the progress of our nation and how the governor’s own faith would inform his presidency if he were elected,” a campaign spokesman, Kevin Madden, said.
“Governor Romney understands that faith is an important issue to many Americans, and he personally feels this moment is the right moment for him to share his views with the nation.”
Kennedy delivered his speech to Southern Baptist leaders in September 1960 — when he was already the Democratic nominee — as a way to address concerns that he would as president take direction from the Vatican.
“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he famously declared, “where no Catholic prelate would tell the president — should he be a Catholic — how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.”
Mr. Romney’s decision comes as he is losing support among evangelical Christians in Iowa to Mr. Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister. Mr. Huckabee has tried to court evangelicals aggressively by emphasizing that his conservative views on social issues are long-held, unlike Mr. Romney, who has changed his position on abortion and gay rights.
While some evangelical leaders have endorsed Mr. Romney, others have expressed discomfort about his religion, and a few have criticized him for saying he is a Christian.
Like other candidates, Mr. Huckabee has avoided overt discussion of Mr. Romney’s Mormon faith, but he is facing questions about a television ad he is running in Iowa that flashes across the screen in large type the words “Christian leader.”
In an interview yesterday on ABC’s “This Week,” Mr. Huckabee denied that he was using the words to draw a specific distinction with Mr. Romney over religion. The line, he said, was intended as purely biographical information. “I’m trying to introduce myself to the voters of Iowa,” he said.
Mr. Huckabee dodged when asked directly if he thought Mr. Romney was a Christian. “Mitt Romney has to answer that,” he said. “Nobody can answer that for another person.”
Mr. McCain also took to the airwaves yesterday to celebrate his campaign’s good news, appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to tout the endorsement of the Union Leader.
The newspaper wrote that Mr. McCain’s “record, his character, and his courage show him to be the most trustworthy, competent, and conservative of all those seeking the nomination.
Simply put, McCain can be trusted to make informed decisions based on the best interests of his country, come hell or high water.”
Whether the endorsement moves the polls for Mr. McCain remains unclear.
Although a Fox News poll last week showed him pulling within eight points of Mr. Romney in New Hampshire, other recent surveys have him trailing by 15 to 20 points and battling Mayor Giuliani for second place.