The American Spectator’s Jeffrey Lord put out a seven page piece on Mike Huckabee daring to challenge El Rushbo for talk show supremacy that could be kindly described as overwrought as he warns of RINO radio and attacks Governor Huckabee for raising taxes while Governor of Arkansas, which is apparently very important to being a talk show host and warns of Huckabee’s big problem:
Mike Huckabee’s celebrity that was acquired when he ran a losing race for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. The problem: Candidate Huckabee went through the usual political proctology exam… and appalled conservatives gave him a decided thumbs down at the distasteful results.
If Mr. Lord were hermetically sealed inside the beltway, it would be easy to conclude that all conservatives were as critical of Huckabee as beltway insiders. The reality was far different. Huckabee won very conservative voters throughout America’s heartland in several exit polls. In 2011, Huckabee had the best favorable rating of any potential candidate for President. Certainly, this wasn’t helped when many “economic conservatives” who castigated Huckabee as a liberal supported a big government rescue of the financial services sector sending the message that they believed in socializing the risks of capitalism, but not its profits. Huckabee meanwhile stood firm for principles like “creative destruction” and “moral hazard.” Apparently, that’ll get you called a liberal by Mr. Lord.
I suppose if the only people who owned radios were Club for Growth members, a Huckabee show would be a more dubious proposition, but that’s not the case.
For his part, Huckabee doesn’t see this the same way as Lord does
When asked about the fact that his show will be broadcast opposite Limbaugh’s, Huckabee said he doesn’t see Rush as a competitor, and acknowledged that Limbaugh has a very loyal audience that has stuck with him for years.
Huckabee sees himself as less of a threat to Limbaugh than Lord does. Why would anyone want to challenge Limbaugh with his built in audience? It’s about the Benjamins. Rush’s show costs stations more money than the New Huckabee show will.
Pardon me, but isn’t this what capitalism is supposed to be about? One person has a product at market and another person has a different product with a different approach and a better price so they bring it to market. If radio stations like what Rush offers them more, they’ll keep Rush. Or they may choose to go with Huckabee. Why is that some conservatives seem to think the Hours between Noon and 3 pm ET are holy and exempt from the free market.
Huckabee may find three hours daily radio not to be for him, just as Limbaugh found television wasn’t his medium several years back.
If Huckabee does make a go of it in radio, he’ll be unlikely to hurt Limbaugh and more likely to draw his own audience who like Huckabee’s style better as well as the fact that Huckabee won’t be talking non-stop politics for three hours, which sometimes is even too much for me. Some of us would like the ability to choose to listen Huckabee at sometimes and Limbaugh at others. Why shouldn’t we have that option?