Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee left Iowa Wednesday night to garner a little national attention on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, playing bass with the house band and trading barbs with the late night host over his dramatic weight loss and his decision not to run a negative ad.
Just as Bill Clinton (also a little-known Arkansas governor running for president) played saxophone for Arsenio Hall, Huckabee picked up an instrument and played a bluesy walking line for several minutes and then high-fived band leader Kevin Eubanks.
Huckabee’s conversation with Leno followed several tacks, but he led off by explaining that “People are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them more of the guy they work with than the guy who laid them off.”
The appearance sparked criticism from the Writers Guild of America, which is still on strike over “reimbursement for Internet distribution of television shows”: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2232935,00.html. Huckabee appeared misinformed on this point, saying that he supports the writers and did not think he would be crossing a picket line, because he said he believed the writers had made an agreement to allow late-night shows on the air. CBS late-night host David Letterman’s production company did come to an agreement with the Guild, but Leno’s network did not.
“Huckabee claims he didn’t know,” chief union negotiator John Bowman said. “I don’t know what that means in terms of trusting him as a future president.”
On his thoughts regarding the Iowa caucus, Huckabee told Leno he wanted his opponents to “drop out and let me have a clear shot all the way to the White House.”
He did, however, say that the Democrat he respects the most is Barack Obama, who, he said, is “trying to do, in many ways, what I hope I’m trying to do.”
Huckabee was back in Iowa Thursday for an 8:30 a.m. “Meet Mike Huckabee” event at the Fun City – Best Western in Burlington and another in Grinnell at noon. He’ll wrap up the day at a “Caucus Watch Party” in downtown Des Moines.
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