Huckabee Cans Negative Romney Ad, but Gives Press a Peek Anyway

A day after calling Mitt Romney “desperate” and “dishonest”, Mike Huckabee cancelled a negative commercial aimed at his chief rival in the Republican Caucus.

Then he showed the commercial to the press and even encouraged them to tape it if they wanted to.

Huckabee said that he had anticipated holding the press conference, which was scheduled yesterday, to unveil a commercial he made over the weekend that criticized Romney’s record on abortion, taxes and other issues.

“We prepared it, sent it to the stations, (and were) supposed to start running it at noon today,” Huckabee said. “This morning, I ordered my staff to pull the ad; I told them I do not want it to be run. If it was run at all, it would be until the stations pulled it off their schedules.”

Huckabee said that he told his staff he wants to focus on his strengths instead of the weaknesses of other Republicans. “We are now committed, from now through the rest of the caucuses, to run the ads that talk about why I should be president, and not why Mitt Romney should not,” he said.

His change of heart came about an hour before the press conference was scheduled to begin, he said he had a change of heart and asked his staff to cancel the ad, which cost about $30,000 to produce.

“At some point we have to decide can we change politics and the level of discourse?” he said.
That didn’t stop Huckabee from showing the ad to the assembled pack of reporters and the room where the press conference was held was decorated with large charts, each proclaiming, “Enough is Enough,” which outlined Romney’s record as governor of Massachusetts.

Huckabee said he shared the commercial to prove to reporters to prove that one had actually been made. The room was prepared in advance of the arrival of reporters and the person who hung the signs and placed the placards around the room didn’t know that Huckabee had changed his plans.

Huckabee said most Iowans have a problem with negative campaign ads like the ones being aired by Romney in recent weeks. But he said it’s more important to focus on his own record and to let Republicans in the state decide for themselves who to support in Thursday’s caucus.

Huckabee conceded that Romney’s ads in recent days have had an impact on polling numbers, which shows that after leading by as much as ten points just two weeks ago, the race is currently a dead heat.
“It’s a huge gamble on my part,” he said. “We’ll see how it turns out. If it hurts me, it hurts me.”

Sunday, on NBCs “Meet the Press”, Huckabee criticized the tone of the Romney campaign as desperate.

“Mitt Romney is running a very desperate and, frankly, a dishonest campaign.  He’s attacked me, and, and yesterday–or Friday, I guess it was, he launched then just a broadside attack against Senator McCain,” Huckabee said. “Now, Senator McCain and I are rivals for the presidency, but I’ve said on many occasions, I’ll say it again here today, Senator McCain is an honorable man, and I believe he’s an honest man.  I believe he’s a man of conviction.  And I felt like that, when Mitt Romney went after the integrity of John McCain, he stepped across a line.  John McCain’s a hero in this country.  He’s a hero to me.”