Mike Huckabee's advice on campaigns from Politics Magazine.

[ddeclue]

He's pretty much on target unlike much of his GOP colleagues and he'll be one of the harder guys to beat in 2012 if he decides to run again. I'd say watch out for Huckabee, Crist (if he wins the FL Senate seat), and Joe Scarborough as the biggest most viable threats to Obama's re-election.

Huckabee is this month's "Guest Editor"...

http://politicsmagazine.com/magazine-issues/october-2009/its-really-about-the-dogs/

It's Really About the Dogs By Mike Huckabee

There are four basic fundamentals to a candidacy: message, motivation of volunteers, media and money. Without a message, there’s no reason for a campaign unless the candidate simply has an ego bigger than the federal deficit or a pile of money he’d like to burn. There are plenty of those kinds of candidates, but most people (liberals and conservatives; Democrats, Republicans and independents) go through this process because they truly and deeply believe they can do better than the “clowns in there now.” It never occurs to them that should they win, they will instantly become one of the “clowns in there now.” But, for the moment, the passion of one’s principles is what defines “message.”

A candidate may have convinced oneself and even a reluctant wife or husband that he or she is “the one” who can and should do this. But if that candidate can’t convince a growing body of people to work for the campaign as volunteers, then it’s time to think about helping a candidate instead of being one. If there is no energy from one’s immediate family and his or her closest friends, relatives, associates and neighbors to give up substantial amounts of time and money to help, then maybe that “gut feeling” was little more than too much pepperoni pizza. A good dose of Pepcid AC would be far less expensive and more satisfying for that type of “gut feeling.”

If the candidate and the message do motivate volunteers to sweep the floors of a dirty old building being rented to house the campaign, eat cold pizza and drink warm sodas at 1 a.m., lick envelopes and stamps until they gain weight from the sweetness on the adhesive, then there might be a real deal going down.

Immediately, if not sooner, the candidate needs to understand how to utilize all forms of media to get the message out and recruit more volunteers. By media, I don’t just mean radio, television and newspapers, but the simpler forms: how to handle a microphone, how to write a good letter, how to think in terms of venue and visual and how to use the Internet to build a network of supporters and disseminate the hopefully maturing message.

snip....

http://politicsmagazine.com/magazine-issues/october-2009/its-really-about-the-dogs/