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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC Political Researcher



Huckabee on money, Fred

Posted: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 12:58 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: , ,



From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
Speaking to Tim Russert on MSNBC this morning, Huckabee said he's happy with his placement in the polls right now, and if he were some of the other candidates, he'd be severely depressed.

"If you look at where we are, even with the national polls, we've spent a nickel to the 100-dollar bill as some of these guys," Huckabee said from Dearborn, Mich. "It's not that I'm depressed thinking where we are. Heck, I'm pretty encouraged. If I were some of these guys who had spent tens of millions of dollars and weren't any further ahead, I'd have to be sitting in a warm tub of water with razor blades in both hands at this point saying how much money does one have to spend to get on track."

The former Arkansas governor also welcomed Fred Thompson to the debate. Thompson skipped the last Republican debate, instead opting to go on the Tonight Show to announce his candidacy. Speaking to Leno, Thompson said he did not like debates with "10 guys or however many show up with 30- to 40-second sound bites," and preferred to debate in small groups or one-on-one. Huckabee took Thompson up on the offer, but Thompson later declined to debate with Huckabee.

"I encouraged him to do what he said he wanted to do, and that was sit down one-on-one and have debates," Huckabee said. "He said he didn't like the format. I suggested that maybe we sit down, and I'd be certainly willing to go an hour and a half in the old Lincoln-Douglass style debates, but he rejected that. I'm glad he's going to be there tonight. I think people who have thought, okay, he's the guy, well, we'll find out tonight."

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Barcalounger Fred is just an old bag of wind. Maybe tonight these repubs will see what a silly old fart they are hanging their hopes on. I'll bet that after tonight, they'll be doing an abrupt about-face and be in panic mode to find somebody else, and of course, deny that they were really ever interested in him to begin with.
I think I'll stick with Rudy or Mitt as my candidate.
I hope Fred remembers to wear his Depends tonight, could  be a long evening for him....
Would Fred debate him in a bathtub full of razorblades?  (That might need to be on HBO Pay per View).
Whoa, did anybody watch Huckabee's interview on the front page? I can't believe the hypocrisy displayed by that man. He talks for 5 minutes about how we need to have a culture that respects life, and protects it whether it's an unborn baby, or an alzheimer's patient who wants to end their life with euthanasia, etc. and then ends his interview by stating that if he were another candidate watching his campaign falter, he'd be sitting in a warm tub with two razors in each hand?!?!? What!?!? Did anybody else hear this? Go check it out on the "Politics" page under video: "Huckabee destined for VP" or something like that. I hope he's not destined to be VP, or even within 100 miles of D.C.  Politicians are ridiculous
If Fred is as conservative as he claims to be (and we know that is just not true), then why not debate Huckabee one on one?  Cause he knows Huckabee is a true social, religous, and fisical conservative - something Fred is not and he is just not ready to reveal that to the rest of this country.
I think I'll stick with Ron Paul as my candidate.  It's my understanding that Ron Paul has more grassroots supporters than any other GOP candidate.
What, could he not get an invite from Letterman?
Any guesses on the number of lapel flags we will see? My guess is 7.
Jerry- You never cease to amaze me, with your conservative stance on everything, how you could say that liberal Rudy could be your candidate. I guess if Hillary switched parties today, she would be your candidate tomorrow. If someone says they're a republican, the republicans will vote for them. How pathetic!
From the sounds of it, I believe many people under estimate Fred Thompson and it is way too early in the primary to really get a true feeling for how much fire Fred has for this race. I am not a Fred fan yet, but I certainly don't rule him out.

Many of the candidates on both sides are being so vocal and making so many empty promises, they're already beginning to back peddle on some of their own garbage.

bb - In the end, Fred didn't really turn out to be all that stupid did he? Who lost his job in all that?

I am a republican and totally undecided on a candidate at this point. I love Rudy, I think he's a great guy, but even being Mayor of a city like New York through a crisis like 911 doesn't make him qualified to be commander and chief of our nation.

Tonights debate should be fairly entertaining.
yeah agreed...Huckabee is a hypocrite. All talk about christian beliefs...then turns around and tells people to kill themselves.

The dude is grasping at straws...doing anything to try to get ahead. He knows his campaign is finished after Ron Paul outraised him 5 to 1.
Who cares how much money Ron Paul has raised?  You Ron Paul supporters are hilarious.  So, you've outraised Huckabee 5 to 1.  And he's polling at 12% in Iowa, and Paul is polling at less than 4%.  What does that tell you?  Huckabee has a true grassroots campaign.  He's surging in the polls, and he's doing it with almost no money.  Huckabee is a candidate that every American can identify with.  He's the only candidate who's not a millionaire, he has solutions to real problems that most Americans face: education, healthcare, jobs, taxes, etc.  

This is just the beginning for Huckabee.  He's moving up steadily in all 3 of the early states: Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.  And he's proving that no matter how much the other candidates spend, as long as the people continue to hear his message, he'll move past the other candidates.  
I realize that since were online, that common sense needs to abandon us, but the man was obviously joking.

Save your unbridled anger for something legitimate, not just a half-baked joke.
If Fred Thompson did so poorly. I wonder why every left wing loony mentioned him in their first sentence when the debate ended? And he seems to be all they have talked about since. This happened because they fear the Fred. I think Fred did fine. Romney looked like a good choice for secretary of commerce. Hunter looked good for secretary of defense. And how about Guliani for attorney general? Oh I almost forgot Ron Paul. I should be so lucky. What if Fred were to create a national director of dog catchers. Ron Paul would be great. He could travel around in a space ship and collect strays.


Contribute to Fred Thompson: https://www.fred08.com/contribute.aspx?RefererID=c637caaa-315c-4b4c-9967-08d864cd0791
Clearly Huckabee was kidding. Was it in bad taste? Yes. But the written word also makes it sound much worse than if you watch it.  He's still the best candidate by far. Rock on Mike.
Fred Thompson was just terrible. He's one of the worst speakers that I have ever seen and the guy is an actor! He did better with some questions than others but when he was bad he was bad on epic proportions. He was at a rally last week and couldn't get a hundred people to show up and after he was done with his speech he had to ask the audience for applause. The more people see him outside of Law and Order, the quicker his campaign will crash and burn.


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