Norris and Huckabee: In 08 They Dominate

When Mike Huckabee took the stage after winning the Republican Iowa caucuses, the cameras zoomed in so far that they cut his wife, Janet, out of the frame. But tough-guy actor Chuck Norris, bearded and grinning in his plaid shirt, was still in the picture over Huckabee's left shoulder. So was Norris's wife, former model Gena O'Kelley.

Cameras DO NOT ZOOM past Mr. Chuck Norris.

The 67-year-old retired martial arts champion and star of '80s action movies such as "Delta Force" and the '90s CBS television series "Walker, Texas Ranger" has reemerged in popular consciousness as one of the most visible figures in the 2008 presidential race. And Norris seems determined to roundhouse-kick America into supporting his fellow conservative Christian's candidacy.

To Norris, Huckabee is authentic. "Many of the candidates talk from the head on a prepared script, like I did as an actor," Norris said in an interview this week. "When I look at Huckabee, he's talking from the heart. That impresses me. He doesn't have a speech prepared."

While presidential candidates have long sought the glamour and fund-raising cachet of big-time celebrity supporters, the endorsers this year have become part of the branding of the candidates: Oprah Winfrey has given her aura of inclusiveness to Barack Obama, and John Mellencamp has lent his distinctive working-class patriotism to John Edwards.

And Norris, a retro icon of virility and heroic violence against Communists and terrorists, is giving a jolt of testosterone to a Republican who is widely perceived as likable and witty - but also weak on national security experience.

Norris was featured in Huckabee's first TV commercial and rode the campaign bus from stop to stop in Iowa and New Hampshire. Today, he will make a series of appearances with the candidate in South Carolina. This weekend, he is hosting a fund-raising webcast from his Texas ranch to help Huckabee buy TV ads to compete in next month's Super Tuesday.

Like many celebrities, Norris takes politics seriously and loves being part of the scene. But there is something even more hands-on about Norris's commitment to Huckabee. While Winfrey, Mellencamp, and other endorsers have spent short periods on the campaign trail, then returned to their day jobs, Norris has become something of an unofficial running mate for Huckabee, ever-present and indispensable.

"They seem to be taking this in some ways to the next level," said Bruce Buchanan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Austin, adding that the Huckabee-Norris relationship is "like choosing a vice presidential candidate - kind of making up for your weakness."

As an actor, Norris plays stoic characters who let their guns and fists do the communicating. On the campaign trail, Norris comes off as talkative, even wonky, earnestly praising Huckabee's positions. He is especially taken with Huckabee's proposal to replace the income tax with a sales tax.

Huckabee, meanwhile, is the entertainer in their joint appearances, playing bass guitar with local bands, making his policy points through folksy stories, and keeping up a steady stream of self-deprecating humor. He jokingly promised a group of rowdy teens at one event in Henniker, N.H., that he would make Norris the secretary of defense, unleashing wild cheers, and he often says he knows most of the crowd really came to see Norris.

It is only half a joke: Norris says his humorous TV commercial with Huckabee, filmed back in the fall when Huckabee was still near the bottom of the polls, was downloaded more than 1.5 million times in 24 hours on YouTube. The attention may have helped fuel Huckabee's abrupt surge.

"My contribution, when we did that promo thing, it kind of lit a spark for Mike," Norris says. "But the thing is, that spark would have gone out if he hadn't had a message that people wanted to hear. But he had that message, and so the spark became a raging fire."

Norris, who also writes an online column in which he frequently expresses conservative Christian views, had never met the former Arkansas governor before writing a column in October endorsing Huckabee as a candidate who would "stand up for a Creator and against secularist beliefs."

After the column came out, the Huckabee campaign asked him to film the commercial. Norris later joined the candidate in Iowa and New Hampshire, when Huckabee was being barraged by attack ads from the better-funded Mitt Romney. As a surrogate, Norris has proved more than willing to play enforcer against Huckabee's rivals, especially the former Massachusetts governor.

"I don't like him," Norris said. "I just don't feel that Romney is speaking the truth. He speaks whatever he thinks people want to hear. . . . I have to commend Huckabee for not retaliating in a negative way. He could say, 'Look at Romney - he flip-flopped on abortion, he flip-flopped on gay marriage - what does he really stand for?' "

Norris has also called for public financing of campaigns because it is "really unfair" that Romney can dump millions into his campaign. He also thinks it is unfair that the press routinely mentions that Huckabee was a Baptist minister before becoming governor when they don't as often note that Romney was a "bishop in the Mormon church."

The Romney campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Norris's remarks.

This is not the first time Norris has lent his beard to a candidate who needed to macho up his image. In the 1988 presidential campaign, George H. W. Bush's campaign strategist, Lee Atwater, recruited Norris to travel with the vice president to help change his image. As Norris puts it, "The press was calling him a wimp."

Huckabee's image is also a little soft for a party that loves action heroes. He is known to many people as a formerly obese man who lost more than 100 pounds and now eats fruit and avoids sugary drinks. He is laid-back and never served in the military. And, more substantively, Huckabee's detractors note that he has little foreign policy experience.

But Norris - again getting tough on Huckabee's behalf - said most of the other candidates, despite giving "lip service" to taking a strong stand in the war on terrorism, don't have any real experience in foreign policy, either.

He notes, for instance, that "Rudy Giuliani was just mayor of New York, for crying out loud." The exception, he said, is John McCain, but he said the Arizona senator is too old and should be Huckabee's vice president so he can share his foreign policy experience. "No candidate can have all the right experience," Norris said. "What you do is you bring in the people who can help guide you in the right direction and make the right decisions."

Norris has let it be known he will do whatever is necessary to defend Huckabee. At one campaign stop in New Hampshire, a man began shouting at the former governor about why he was being advised by Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an organization that is a favorite target of conspiracy theorists.

At first Huckabee ignored the man, but as he continued to disrupt the event, Huckabee won the crowd back and regained control by joking: "Don't make me send Chuck back there."

Huckagee in 08: Going National

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Mike Huckabee, written off as a long shot for much of the presidential campaign, emerged as one of the leaders of the Republican pack when he won the Iowa caucuses. But like the dog that finally caught the car, the Huckabee campaign is having to figure out how to deal with challenges it never prepared for.

The Iowa winner campaigned in South Carolina yesterday for the first Southern primary, this Saturday. He has gotten this far on his communication skills and appeal to evangelicals. Now he must broaden his support as his tiny organization evolves from a start-up to one competing at the highest level of U.S. politics.

The demands of logistics, policy, press and fund raising are swamping a campaign powered by an inner circle with little experience. Thin policy positions, an unorganized press operation and a lack of long-term planning have all posed problems.

The strains hampered Mr. Huckabee in Michigan on Tuesday, where he finished a distant third to Mitt Romney and John McCain. The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister is counting on fellow Southern conservative Christians to give him a win in South Carolina. But after that comes a Feb. 5 vote in 21 states. Mr. Huckabee has no staff or offices in any of them except his headquarters in Little Rock.

"We're having to deal with things we never dealt with before," Mr. Huckabee says. "As you grow, your old shoes don't fit. The old shirts have to be replaced."

He is hardly the first candidate to burst on the scene with little notice. A few succeed, like Jimmy Carter; many others, like Howard Dean, crash and burn. The difference has much to do with outside factors, such as whether a candidate fills a particular void. Mr. Huckabee benefits from a splintered Republican field with no other candidate who appeals so strongly to social conservatives.

The compressed calendar is a big challenge, though. After Mr. Carter won Iowa in 1976, he had a month to prepare for New Hampshire. This year, New Hampshire came less than a week later. By barely a month after the Iowa caucuses, about half the GOP delegates will have been chosen.

At the heart of the Huckabee effort is Chip Saltsman, a veteran of Tennessee politics who uses snuff and favors black snakeskin boots. The 39-year-old signed on a year ago after Mr. Huckabee invited him to go duck hunting in one of Arkansas's premier locales. At the time, Mr. Huckabee hadn't raised a dime and didn't register in polls.

For a campaign manager, Mr. Saltsman tackles an unusual number of details. One morning in South Carolina, he personally handled calls and emails concerning the state's voter database, the script for volunteers' phone calls, and the way to thank volunteers from Iowa. He reviewed the prior day's disbursements, from $25,000 for direct mail to a $15.12 item at Wal-Mart. He took a call from a former congressman offering advice for that night's debate. "The problem is, we're not in charge of what the questions are," he told the caller.

For months, Mr. Saltsman focused almost entirely on Iowa. A calendar in his Little Rock office counted down to the Jan. 3 caucuses, and each morning he would rip off a sheet, crumple it and toss it at his assistant. Then Mr. Huckabee actually won Iowa. Since then his campaign has been struggling to adjust to his new status, and how it copes will have a lot to do with whether he has a real shot.

Its biggest new hire: Ed Rollins, manager of Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide re-election, who has more presidential-campaign experience than the rest of the team combined. Mr. Rollins signed on last month as national chairman and often travels with Mr. Huckabee.

He speaks highly of Mr. Saltsman, but one concern he has is that "Chip still has his hands on everything." Mr. Rollins recalls advice he got from Richard Nixon upon going to work for Mr. Reagan: No campaign manager can do it all.

Yet Mr. Saltsman's campaign strategy has defied expectations. He got his candidate this far partly by watching every cent. When consultants told him he had to hire field directors across Iowa or he would lose, he replied, "I guess we're going to lose."

Skilled Storyteller

As Mr. Huckabee has shown, the candidate can matter more than the campaign. The key to his success has been himself -- a skilled storyteller and strong social conservative. The former preacher doesn't just represent the evangelical community, he comes from it, and these voters have flocked to him. Mitt Romney had an extensive organization in Iowa yet lost to Mr. Huckabee by nine points.

But organization counts, too, and will more so as the campaign goes national. After Iowa, the demands grew. On all but a few issues, Mr. Huckabee's policy positions were sketchy. His campaign lacked key people, including a national finance chairman and a national security adviser.

"We've moved away from our comfort zones," Mr. Saltsman told his staff at a late-night staff meeting last week in Myrtle Beach, in a room off the hotel bar. "We're adding people faster than we know who they are."

It was barely 24 hours after the New Hampshire polls closed, but Michigan was less than a week away. The campaign was focused on South Carolina and had almost no infrastructure in Michigan. Polls showed Mr. Huckabee had a shot there, so Mr. Saltsman decided to make an effort.

He sent Shane Henry, a 28-year-old Arkansas lawyer who had helped get Mr. Huckabee on state ballots. Mr. Henry, whose father-in-law is close to Mr. Huckabee, sold some property in September, making enough to forgo a paycheck for a while. He signed on as a volunteer, and calls the timing of his windfall "a God thing."

He was hardly the ideal organizer. Asked what Mr. Henry knew about Michigan, Mr. Saltsman says he knew where it was. Mr. Henry, asked about his experience in organizing events, says, "I was student-body president at my university."

Just 36 hours before Mr. Huckabee landed in Michigan, the campaign had yet to put out his schedule for the trip. Mr. Saltsman huddled in his Myrtle Beach hotel room for a midnight conference call with Mr. Henry, Sarah Huckabee -- the candidate's 25-year-old daughter and national field director -- and Mr. Huckabee's daughter-in-law, Lauren Huckabee.

As they went over the Michigan plans, Mr. Saltsman was prepared for the worst. At the staff meeting earlier that night, Sarah Huckabee had reported that the entire Michigan team had threatened to quit because they were so frustrated at the task ahead.

Mr. Saltsman was frustrated, too. His eyes were clenched shut as he listened to Mr. Henry describe the spot they were in. They wanted to announce new endorsements but didn't know who was actually planning to back Mr. Huckabee. They planned a big rally in Birch Run, Mich., but didn't know who would introduce him.

Mr. Saltsman lodged a pinch of snuff in his cheek, leaned back and tried to take the team through the schedule, event by event. He offered a suggestion made earlier by Mr. Rollins: How about stopping at the Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum? The Michigan team said there wasn't likely to be a crowd there. "We're not looking for a crowd, we're looking for a media event," Mr. Saltsman explained, exasperated.

The team couldn't decide whether it was worthwhile to stop at a basketball game for home-schoolers, who are often evangelical Christians. It would add two hours to what was already a 14-hour day. Mr. Saltsman said he would think about it.

Mike Huckabee meets with supporters in Columbia, S.C.

As the call concluded, Sarah Huckabee, exhausted, mouthed to Mr. Saltsman that he needed to tell Mr. Henry and his team that they were doing a good job. Mr. Saltsman rolled his eyes. "They are working hard and really trying," Ms. Huckabee wrote on a slip of paper.

Before hanging up, Mr. Saltsman offered a pep talk. "I know this has been kind of a crazy couple of days, and I appreciate everyone running hard and doing the best you can," he said. "We are ready for whatever happens in Michigan. Then we'll come to South Carolina and play a home game."

The results were mixed. The rally in Birch Run worked: More than 1,000 pumped-up people jammed an expo center to hear Mr. Huckabee give a passionate stump speech and play his bass guitar.

Home-Schoolers' Game

The campaign decided to go to the home-schooler basketball game -- because the local media were already reporting that he was coming. The game offered an enthusiastic crowd, including a woman who insisted Mr. Huckabee take a ring of hers, saying it was all she had to give. By the next day, he was talking about her on the stump. Yet Saturday morning, a lengthy visit to the Ford museum failed to attract any local media, as it was never put onto his public schedule.

The biggest event on the schedule was a speech to the Detroit Economic Club. Advisers worked for days writing it, but in the end Mr. Huckabee rejected most of the draft and came up with his own talk, consisting largely of themes he had honed on the trail. He declared that it was the nation's duty to come to the aid of the economically troubled state. When local reporters pressed him for specifics, he had few.

One aide acknowledged that policy papers on some major areas "don't exist." Mr. Rollins last week expanded the policy shop from three to four -- compared with eight for the Romney campaign.

Mr. Saltsman is trying to figure out what the priorities should be. He worries about spending money too fast, knowing how some campaigns have burned through millions early and wound up nearly broke, a peril Sen. McCain faced last summer. Most of the Huckabee money, Mr. Saltsman believes, needs to be saved for TV ads. Only strategic hires are allowed.

Another challenge is integrating new people into the fold. "The hard part," Mr. Huckabee says, is "we've always had a very intimate staff and a tightly knit group who've really been through some trials, and [new people] suddenly come on board and they don't even know who people are. I mean I'll go and I'll shake hands with someone and [they'll] say, 'I work for you.' Oh, OK, I didn't know that...it's a little embarrassing."

Michigan: 3rd is Huckabee in 08

LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Mike Huckabee, nursing a second third-place finish in northern states, looked ahead to the South where he hopes his Arkansas roots and Baptist background will put him back on a winning track in South Carolina.

"Ladies and gentlemen we're going to win South Carolina," he declared to supporters in Lexington.

Huckabee, the winner of the Iowa caucuses, has emerged from the back of the pack into an improbable contender. But he has since had to watch John McCain win New Hampshire and, now, Mitt Romney win Michigan. He is staking his new foothold on South Carolina's social conservatives and religious voters as well as young working-class voters attracted to his economic populist message. South Carolina's GOP primary is Saturday.

"We put a flag in the ground here Saturday," he said of the state. "We're going to make it real clear that the first-in-the-South primary is going to give their support to the first-in-the-South candidate."

The state is more familiar ground for the folksy ordained Baptist minister. More than half of the state's likely Republican voters are white evangelicals, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. It was those voters who carried Huckabee to victory in Iowa.

But there are no guarantees for the former Arkansas governor. According to exit polls in Michigan, about four in 10 voters in the GOP contest called themselves born-again or evangelical Christians, and they split about evenly between Huckabee and Romney. In New Hampshire last week, those voters split evenly among Huckabee, Romney and McCain.

Huckabee will compete for those voters in South Carolina with Romney and Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and television actor who is staking the life of his campaign on a victory in South Carolina.

"Whatever it takes, we're in it for the long haul," Huckabee said on CNN.

As he did in Michigan, Huckabee was expected to rally pastors to help turn out their flocks. He draws heavy support from parents who home school their children, a small but actively engaged bloc that populate his cadre of volunteers. Huckabee repeated one of his favorite applause lines Tuesday, telling supporters, "Mothers and fathers raise better kids than governments do."

Huckabee has drawn distinctions with his rivals over abortion and gay marriage by calling for constitutional amendments to ban both. Thompson and McCain oppose same-sex marriage but stop short of calling for a constitutional amendment. On abortion, Huckabee is alone in calling for a constitutional amendment.

"I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God," Huckabee said Monday night in Warren, Mich. "And that's what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards, rather than try to change God's standards."

He also talked tough on immigration. Arriving Tuesday in Rock Hill, S.C., Huckabee called for suspending immigration from countries that sponsor or harbor terrorists, going further than any of his rivals in proposing to clamp down on immigration.

"I say we ought to put a hiatus on people who come in here ... if they come from countries that sponsor and harbor terrorists," he said. "Let's say, until you get your act in order, and we get our act in order, we're not going to just let you keep coming and threaten the future and safety of America."

His campaign quickly backtracked; Huckabee dropped the issue in his next speech, and an adviser, Jim Pinkerton, said Huckabee really meant he wants a "thorough review" of immigration problems.

He has appealed for working-class voters by saying he was the first among the Republican candidates to recognize economic hardships that many Americans face.

"If you spend some time listening to people you're going to find that there's a world of hurt out there in America," he told his South Carolina supporters.

Huckabee trails his rivals in financing and was outspent by both Romney and Huckabee in Michigan. He spent about $480,000 in advertising in the state, compared to more than $2 million by Romney.

How does Huckabee in 08 compare to 04? Speech from 04.

All of you are aware that the theme for my initiative as ECS Chairman will be “The Arts – A Lifetime of Learning.” This is a passion for me, not just a program, and you will see that over the next two years. I want to explain, on a very personal level, why this issue is so important to me.

The Old State House Museum in Little Rock is one you may have seen when Bill Clinton first announced his intent to run for President and when he accepted the presidency the night of his election in 1992. This museum has quite a bit of visibility in our state and across the world as well. Inside there are many artifacts of Arkansas history and wonderful exhibits, both changing and stationary.

If you wandered up to the second floor of the museum you would see something that might first strike you as a bit unusual. You would see an old guitar in one of the glass cases. If you know anything about guitars, you may think it not all that impressive, as it is not a very nice or expensive guitar. You might learn that the guitar is, in fact, a very inexpensive one. It was purchased in 1966 at a cost of $99, which included the electric guitar, the plastic case and the amplifier– the whole works – from the J.C. Penney catalog. You may wonder why that guitar is there. It’s there because it happens to be the first guitar of a child who wanted to play so badly that his parents made an extraordinary sacrifice by scraping together $99 and purchasing it for this child’s eleventh Christmas.

Like so many children who grew up in the era of the post-Beatles phenomenon, this kid learned to play the guitar and played it so much that sometimes his fingers would almost bleed. Also like so many others, he never made it to the big time, never became a musician of renown. So why is his guitar in a museum?

It is on display because it belonged to me. In fact, the guitar is part of an exhibit of the First Families of Arkansas. Various governors donated artifacts from their childhoods and their lives, and this happened to be the first guitar I ever owned. I have owned quite a few since, most of which – thank goodness – are of a little better quality, but that guitar is priceless to me because it was my introduction to music. My parents thought it was noise, but by gosh the music sounded good to me.

If you’re wondering whether I have improved any since 1966, you will have a chance to find out later during this conference when you hear the band I formed called Capitol Offense. I hope you will bring your dancing shoes because we are not a concert band, but rather a band that wants you to have a good time.

Our band opened this year for Willie Nelson in a sold-out arena concert of 8,000 people. We opened last year for the Charlie Daniels Band and have also worked with Dionne Warwick. A week from now we will be playing a concert with Grand Funk Railroad and later this year with 38 Special. We played one of the President’s inaugural parties, and as of tomorrow night, we will have played all three Peabody Hotels – Orlando, Memphis and Little Rock. We have played for the Southern Governors Association and for the Council of State Governments, and in a host of other places where I find a way to get us invited because nobody else will have us.

“Whether one looks at studies of students’ ACT and SAT scores, or their math scores or their capacity for learning foreign language, a tremendous body of evidence indicates a correlation between arts and academics...”

My point in all of this is that participating in the arts is something I am still able to do. We may not be that sophisticated since we are a classic rock-and-roll band, but we have a whole lot of fun and don’t take ourselves too seriously. I will tell you something else as well: if I had been a great athlete in high school, played tackle football or the like, I would not be playing tackle football at my age now. However, I can still make music today. And 10, 20 or 30 years from now I will still be able to make music. Just like Willie Nelson. When we played with him, I sat there in amazement and watched this 70-year old man playing with the dexterity of a 25-year old, making music and causing kids – young enough to be his grandchildren – to rush up to the front of the stage to greet him. I could not believe that this 70-year old man is still making incredible music and enthralling crowds. It was so wonderful to see.

Over the next two years of my chairmanship at the Education Commission of the States (ECS), we are going to focus on learning, enjoying and participating in the arts. Let me explain in a simple way the three main components of my initiative.

First of all, I want to be able to present what I call a case for the arts. A great deal of research supports the direct connection between arts education and academic improvement. Whether one looks at studies of students’ ACT and SAT scores, or their math scores or their capacity for learning foreign language, a tremendous body of evidence indicates a correlation between arts and academics as kids develop both the left and right sides of their brains. Through the arts, children are able to increase their capacity for spatial reasoning and their ability to think creatively.

Now some would say, “Well, I’m not too sure those studies are conclusive.” Let’s assume for the moment that they are not. Even so, participation in and appreciation of the arts can last a lifetime. Music, for example, is a life skill – an interest and an aptitude that one can maintain throughout a lifetime, unlike some interests that a kid will pick up and maybe never use again. It’s not just about learning music or enjoying music, but participating in music – it can captivate a student.

A child can experience music at five or six or seven years old and spend the rest of his or her life developing a love and appreciation for it. That child will never outgrow it, and will never come to the place where he says, “it no longer can or should be a part of my life.”

“A person in a musical group or a choir or in a play understands that for every minute of performance there are hours and hours and hours of practice. And that is how one gets good at anything.”

The benefits are too numerous to mention here, but one significant consequence of participating in the arts is that children learn teamwork. Imagine a child in the band who realizes his instrument may not be the loudest – it may not even be the one playing the primary melody – but when the conductor calls for that one moment when that child can shine, it’s meaningful.

This kid learns something about life, doesn’t he? A person in a musical group or a choir or in a play understands that for every minute of performance there are hours and hours and hours of practice. And that is how one gets good at anything. Whether it’s being in the band or being the CEO of a major company, the life lessons learned by participating in the arts are clearly invaluable.

In fact, one survey of CEOs across America determined that the common denominator of successful CEOs of companies was not that they were the valedictorians of their class or even in the top 10% academically. The common denominator was their participation in team activities as they were growing up. Such activities taught them both to lead and to follow and to be part of a group.

To put it simply, we need to focus on the arts in education because the arts teach kids how to learn. Through the arts, children are presented with huge amounts of new information that they process and use to participate in activities they enjoy. Through the arts, children develop creative skills which carry them toward new ideas, new experiences and new challenges, not to mention a great deal of satisfaction. This is the intrinsic value of the arts, and it cannot be overestimated in any way.

If the first aspect of my ECS initiative is to make a case for the arts, the second component is to establish a place for the arts. That place ought to be our schools, where children already are gathered and are learning. Ensuring that arts education is part of every school not only will enhance student achievement, it will give children access to activities and interests that will benefit and enrich their lives.

“Ensuring that arts education is part of every school not only will enhance student achievement, it will give children access to activities and interests that will benefit and enrich their lives.”

I get really angry when I hear people speak of the arts as if it is only an extracurricular, extraneous and expendable endeavor in our schools. Let me tell you, I think it is an essential part of an overall well-rounded education. If we are not providing an arts education, including music, the visual arts, theatre, dance and more, then we are not doing enough. It is critical to touch the talent of every kid, no matter what that talent is, and in far too many of our schools, we have been willing to touch the talent as long as it was about running fast, jumping high, or throwing a ball better than another kid.

I enjoy sports too and these skills are wonderful, but I also know that many of those kids who play sports and who are proud of their letter jackets when they are seniors in high school will find these jackets hanging in their closets by the time they are 25. For most students, sports alone will not propel them to the next level of success in life. They won’t be able to play or participate for life, but rather will only be able to be spectators. The arts, however, can build skills and appreciation that can be used and enjoyed for a lifetime.

I think we need a place for arts and athletics, and frankly in that order, in our schools. We need a place for every student in every school in America to find his or her talent in the arts.

The third component of my chairman’s initiative is to put a face on the arts. Let me personalize it by giving you some examples of some famous Arkansans who have parlayed their participation in the arts from poverty to prosperity. One of the great entertainers of all time, Johnny Cash, grew up as one of the poorest kids in Arkansas in a little bitty community called Kingsland.

Johnny Cash lived there until he was three when his family moved to northeast Arkansas and tried to farm as best they could. There, not far from Memphis, he heard sounds that ranged from gospel and blues to country. Out of all those experiences and sounds, he put together his own unique styling, found his way to Sam Phillips’ Sun recording studios in Memphis and joined up with a band called the Tennessee Three.

The rest, as they say, is history, and Johnny Cash made plenty of it in the music industry. He became a crossover artist of great success who was respected in virtually every genre of music. This is just one example of a kid who truly found himself through the arts and will leave a legacy on society because of his music and his personal artistry.

Another example is Mary Steenburgen whose father was a railroad worker in northern Little Rock, Arkansas. She came from a working-class family and now, as you know, is an Oscar-winning actress.

Billy Bob Thornton, who grew up in Malvern, Arkansas is a brilliant writer, actor and director. But he did not grow up in the way that he lives now. He grew up the son of a local high school coach and a psychic. Although he battled undesirable circumstances like the loss of his father as a teen, he was able to parlay his dreams, burning within him to become a successful writer, producer, actor and Oscar-winner.

I present these examples not because somebody might be the next Johnny Cash or Billy Bob Thornton or Mary Steenburgen, but to point out that there is a kid who will play in the high school band and will learn how to play the trumpet. Prior to learning the trumpet, this kid will have no place. He won’t be a great basketball player or be picked for the team at recess, but one day, somebody will put a trumpet in his hands and he will find his gift from God. When he plays, he not only will find the blessing within himself, but people who have never given him attention before will give him their applause.

For every one of you in this room today who has ever heard applause for something that you did and did well, I don’t have to tell you that self-esteem is not the result of somebody saying, “Here, here is your self-esteem, feel better about yourself.” It is the result of being allowed to be good at what you are gifted to do – then self-esteem takes care of itself.

“Self-esteem is not the result of somebody saying, ‘Here, here is your self-esteem, feel better about yourself.’ It is the result of being allowed to be good at what you are gifted to do – then self-esteem takes care of itself.”

Don’t we owe that opportunity to every kid in America? Don’t we owe to every child, whether his talent is basketball or the tuba, the ability to experience it? The face of the arts should be the face that we hope to see on every kid as he lights up walking out on a stage. The face may be playing only a tiny part in a play, but that child knows that the hours of practice meant something. The lines memorized, or the instrument learned, or the song written all mean something, and that child can feel good about his efforts and achievement.

Placed around this room is artwork that has been brought to us by the Créalde School of Art. In looking at this work, I have a great sense of joy knowing that a child, somewhere, took a blank board and created something that represented his thoughts, his spirit and his heart.

Inside of every human being there are secrets to unlock, there are treasurers to unlatch. We owe it to all children to make sure that whatever their talent is – theater, music, dance or painting – doors are open for them. We must make sure that they don’t go through life without ever discovering their talents.

“Inside of every human being there are secrets to unlock, there are treasurers to unlatch. We owe it to all children to make sure that whatever their talent is – theater, music, dance or painting – doors are open for them.”

If education means anything, it means that we build bridges and that we, as education leaders, open doors. All education ultimately does this. The best piece of advice I ever had, when I was getting ready to go to college, was from a gentleman in my hometown who said, “Now Mike, I hope you don’t think that when you get to college, they are going to teach you everything you need to know because they can’t. In fact, if you approach it that way, you are going to be miserably unhappy for the rest of your life with what college does for you.” He wanted to tell me these things because he knew I would be the first generation in my family to ever go to college. He told me, “Just remember this, college won’t teach you what you need to learn for life. All college and education can do is to help you to learn how to learn. You will spend the rest of your life as a student and you will never quit learning. If you learn that in college, it will be a great experience for you.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, through the Education Commission of the States, we could awaken a national sense of priority for the arts, a national sense of appreciation and participation in all 50 states? Wouldn’t it also be wonderful to turn up the volume on the arts and make sure that we use the megaphone of this organization to say to every governor, to every state school chief, to every superintendent, to every school board member, to every parent in every district in this country that we will insist that every child have the opportunity to learn, enjoy and participate in the arts? I hope you will join me over the next two years in these efforts so that two years from now we will look back and say that we have not just changed the attitudes about curriculum, but we have changed the future of America by building bridges and opening doors. Every kid in America is going to have access to the arts.

I look forward to working with you and thank you very much.

Huckabee in 08 Iowa Primary. Victory Speech.

Thank you, Iowa.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

You know, I wasn't sure that I would ever be able to love a state as much as I love my home state of Arkansas.

But tonight, I love Iowa a whole lot.

Over the past several months, my family and I have had the marvelous joy and privilege of getting to know many of you. And it's been an incredible honor.

I was thinking last night that some of the friendships that we've forged here in the last several months are friendships that will last a lifetime.

And we didn't know how this was going to turn out tonight. But I knew one thing: I would be forever grateful to the people that I met, the ones who voted for me, even the ones who didn't, who still treated me with respect and who gave me their attention, who have allowed me to come often, not just into their communities, but into their homes, not once, but time and time again.

And a few of them, I even convinced to vote for me tonight and that's really remarkable.

I want to say how much I appreciate my wife, Janet.

She was a wonderful first lady of Arkansas.

And I think she'll be a wonderful first lady for the United States of America.

We also want to say thanks. Our three children are with us tonight.

I would like them to come and just be a part of this tonight. They have all been so much involved. Our oldest son, John Mark, our son, David, his wife, Lauren, our daughter, Sarah, who has literally lived in Iowa for the past two and a half months.

And I told her if she stayed much longer, she'll have to get her an Iowa driver's license and probably start paying even more taxes up here.

And I say thanks to all of them for joining with us in this effort, because a family goes through it, not just the candidate. But tonight is a celebration for everybody on our team, so many of you who have traveled from all across America to be here.

I'm amazed, but I'm encouraged, because tonight what we have seen is a new day in American politics. A new day is needed in American politics, just like a new day is needed in American government. And tonight it starts here in Iowa.

But it doesn't end here. It goes all the way through the other states and ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue one year from now.

I think we've learned three very important things through this victory tonight. The first thing we've learned is that people really are more important than the purse, and what a great lesson for America to learn. Most of the pundits believe that when you're outspent at least 15 to 1, it's simply impossible to overcome that mountain of money and somehow garner the level of support that's necessary to win an election.

Well, tonight we proved that American politics still is in the hands of ordinary folks like you and across this country who believe that it wasn't about who raised the most money but who raised the greatest hopes, dreams and aspirations for our children and their future.

And tonight I hope we will forever change the way Americans look at their political system and how we elect presidents and elected officials.

Tonight, the people of Iowa made a choice, and their choice was clear.

Their choice was for a change. *(Note: Sorry Barack but he Stole 'yer Slogan)

But that choice for a change doesn't end just saying, "Let's change things."

Change can be for the better. It could be for the worse. *(At Least he made it better)

Americans are looking for a change. But what they want is a change that starts with a challenge to those of us who were given this sacred trust of office so that we recognize that what our challenge is to bring this country back together, to make Americans, once again, more proud to be Americans than just to be Democrats or Republicans.

To be more concerned about being going up instead of just going to the left or to the right.

And while we have deep convictions that we'll stand by and not waiver on, or compromise -- those convictions are what brought us to this room tonight. But we carry those convictions not so that we can somehow push back the others, but so we can bring along the others and bring this country to its greatest days ever.

Because I'm still one who believes that the greatest generation doesn't have to be the ones behind us. The greatest generation can be those who have yet to even be born.

And that's what we are going to...

And, ladies and gentlemen, we've learned something else tonight, and that is that this election is not about me. It's about we.

And I don't say that lightly. I'm the person whose name gets on the signs, who occasionally gets the attention in some...

... of the few ads that came out here and there.

But the election is not about me. And the country is not just about me.

What is happening tonight in Iowa is going to start really a prairie fire of new hope and zeal. And it's already happening across this nation because it is about we; we the people.

We saw it tonight. We've seen it in other states. And we're going to continue to see it because this country yearns and is hungry for leadership that recognizes that when one is elected to public office, one is not elected to be a part of the ruling class; he's elected to be a part of the serving class. Because we the people are the ruling class of America.

G.K. Chesterton once said that a true soldier fights not because he hates those who are in front of him, but because he loves those who are behind him. Ladies and gentlemen, I recognize that running for office, it's not hating those who are in front of us. It's loving those who are behind us.

It's recognizing that behind us are great patriots dating back to the beginning of this wonderful country, when 56 brave men put their signatures on a document that started forth the greatest experiment in government in the history of mankind, and gave birth to the idea that all of us are created equal, and we have been given by our creator inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

And these who signed that document, who gave birth to this dream, were the beginnings of those throughout our history who have continued, with great sacrifice, extraordinary valor, to pass on to us that liberty and the quest for something better than the generation before them had.

I stand here tonight the result of parents who made incredible sacrifices as part of a great generation, who went through a Depression and a world war and said our kids won't have to go through these things. And every sacrifice they made were to lift us on their shoulders and give us a better America than they ever could have envisioned. And they were successful in doing that.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, for the same reason that our founding fathers and those before us saw what was behind us and gave it their best, I ask you to join me across Iowa and the rest of America to look out there in front of us and not to hate those, but to look behind us and to love them so much that we will do whatever it takes to make America a better country, to give our kids a better future, to give this world a better leader.

And we join together tonight for that purpose. God help you and thank you for all you've done. I'm so grateful for the support, the incredible work that you've done. And now we've got a long journey ahead of us.

I wish it were all over tonight, and we could just celebrate the whole thing. But unfortunately, if this were a marathon, we've only run half of it. But we've run it well.

And now it's on from here to New Hampshire, and then to the rest of the country. But I'll always be wanting to come back to this place and say, wherever it ends -- and we know where that's going to be -- it started here in Iowa.

Thank you and God bless you, every one of you. Thank you tonight. Thank you.

*=Personal Notes