Mitt Romney took a stop off the trail Saturday, and shared a meal with his traveling press corps. The food? Colonel Sanders’ fried chicken, and biscuits. Romney, known for his healthy eating habits, however, pulled off the skin. For some Southerners, a culinary faux pas.
Today, FNC asked Huckabee, how he as a Southerner, and someone who is also known for his healthy diet(Huckabee famously lost 110 pounds) eats the calorically-colossal, but Southern gastronomic mainstay.
“Going thru the weight loss program I try to eat it more broiled, and baked but I can tell you this: any Southerner knows that if you’re not gonna eat the skin, don’t bother with calling it fried chicken,”Huckabee said through a smile.” And that’s good, I’m glad to hear that he did that because that means I’m going to win Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma- all these great Southern states that understand that the best part of fried chicken, is the skin.”
Huckabee said it reminded him of an event when he was a graduate student in San Antonio. President Gerald Ford, in what is now famously part of political folklore, ate a a tamale with its corn husk still on it, which is comparable to eating a blue crab, or lobster without taking off its shell.
“Gerald Ford was in San Antonio and was handed a tamale, and he tried to eat it with the shuck on it. And all that weekend every newscast in Texas lead with ‘President Ford doesn’t know how to eat a tamale.”, Huckabee told reporters.”He lost Texas, and many believe he lost the presidency, and there are a lot of people who will believe forever that it was the shuck on the tamale, not Jimmy Carter, that beat Gerald Ford in 1976. So who knows?”
Port St. Lucie, FL — As Giuliani begins his final uphill 48-hour push for votes with a bus tour up the Florida east coast, campaign aides are finding some hope in early and absentee voting numbers released yesterday.
The GOP numbers according to the Republican Party of Florida:
State party officials estimate that absentee and early votes will constitute about one third of the nearly 1.4 to 1.5 million Republicans expected to cast ballots.
The Giuliani campaign has been conducting a major get out the vote (GOTV) push for the last month as their rivals were campaigning in early states, and aides say they are confident that they are leading the early vote count. Absentee voting began in late December and early voting began on January 14, six days before McCain and Romney arrived in the state.
More than 1,000 campaign volunteers made more than 87,000 phone calls yesterday, campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella said.
Boca Raton, FL — As the campaign sees it’s poll numbers falling and braces for a possible loss in their must-win state Tuesday, Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s endorsement of John McCain is the latest disappointment and affront to Rudy Giuliani–who has pulled out all the stops to win over Sunshine State voters and secure the Gov’s blessing.
Up until the New Hampshire primary, Crist had privately pledged to endorse the former NYC mayor (as FOX previously reported) but switched allegiances to McCain in the last two weeks, Giuliani campaign aides tell Fox News.
Giuliani’s campaign motto is “Florida counts,” he will have spent 50+ days overall and 20 days straight campaigning in the state through Tuesday and to top it off, he agreed to support a National Catastrophe fund—essentially a federal insurance bail out that would benefit Floridians suffering from high rates due to hurricanes and a pet issue for Crist.
In supporting the fund, which would cost taxpayers around the country more than $200 billion, Giuliani went against much of his underlying fiscal conservative ideology and campaign pledges to restrain Washington spending–all for Floridians and Crist.
While campaigning in Alabama, Mike Huckabee, stepped into the fray between the two leading GOP candidates for the Florida primary, by defending John McCain from allegations by Mitt Romney that he was” dishonest”. Romney had used that term after McCain accused him of supporting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
” Senator McCain and I disagree on some things like immigration and Human Life amendment, but I’ve never known Senator McCain to be dishonest,” Huckabee said to reporters, after a massive rally at Stamford University, outside of Birmingham.” Many things might be said about him but I would not attribute dishonesty to Senator McCain.”
Huckabee agreed with McCain that Romney had supported a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Huckabee said that Romney supported a plan authored by Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor (D) that called for a “secretly-held” timetable for withdrawal without a publicly disclosed date.
” I have seen some of Governor Romney’s statements on withdrawal,” Huckabee said.” I’ve seen the actual quotes and he did support that secret withdrawal plan, and its documented in a number of accounts.”
done
Earlier, Huckabee was met by a massive Alabama crowd at this Baptist university, a size that took campaign staffers, and school officials by surprise. The auditorium where Huckabee gave his remarks was fully packed, but there was an amount triple that size in the overflow room. The “room” was actually a larger auditorium opened up at the last second to accommodate the long lines. Local police put the number of people at five hundred in the first smaller auditorium, and 2 thousand plus in the second auditorium. 2,500 plus, combined,according to the officials. Reporters covering the event placed the amount closer between 1,500 to 2,000.
Orlando, FL — Rudy Giuliani is making his final pitch to Sunshine State voters in a 90-second ad, “Clear,” set to air Sunday on Florida CBS affiliates during “60 Minutes.”
Giuliani is going back to basics with talk of terror, tax cuts and some love for his Florida base—note the mention of standing up to Arafat and Castro and his support for the National Catastrophe Fund.
Orlando, FL — Rudy Giuliani may have finally found his message for Florida voters: Can’t we all get along.
Responding to the escalating war of words between John McCain and Mitt Romney, Giuliani said Saturday that the American people are “tired of the name calling and finger pointing.”
“If you listen to my opponents, it is getting kind of nasty,” Giuliani told a “Women for Rudy” event in Orlando. “We don’t want to become like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton right? They are trying to work their way out of it, we dont want to work our way into it. Right?”
At a media availability after the event, Giuliani savored the opportunity to cast himself as the optimistic candidate with a vision for Florida—calling on his opponents to strike a cease fire.
“I think this election should be about the positive things, about what we can do, what we can accomplish. I’m concerned that some of my opponents are engaging in negative campaigning using words like ‘dishonesty,’” he said. “The reason I am being positive is I believe that is the way to win. It seems to me you sorta got that message when you saw what happened in Iowa with Mike Huckabee. The American people are sending us a message that they want us to be positive–that they are tired of the name calling and finger pointing.” (See video above for more)
What’s the difference between a leader and a manager?
That’s the question posed to John McCain Friday at a press conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The Senator often says he’s the candidate to lead, not manage, the country– clearly a swipe at Mitt Romney.
Here’s what McCain had to say on the subject: done
After speaking to the Latin Builders Association, Mike Huckabee was asked about Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and his heir apparent, brother Raul Castro. Specifically, a reporter asked, what would be Huckabee’s approach to Raul, if he became president? Huckabee responded that Raul Castro would not be much different than Fidel, and further, Raul, Huckabee said, should be indicted for murder for his involvement in the Cuban Air Force downing of 2 aircrafts operated by a Cuban-American, pro-Democracy organization in 1996, over international waters.
Brothers to the Rescue, or “Hermanos al Rescate” the Miami-based activist organization that manned the civilian aircraft was formed by Cuban exiles. The group describes itself as a humanitarian foundation aiming to assist and rescue raft refugees who leave Cuba looking for a better life in the United States.
“The sad thing is that Raul is not going to be much better than his brother Fidel. And especially, if you look at Raul’s personal involvement in the shooting down of the aircraft operated by ‘Brothers to the Rescue’, ” Huckabee said.” That was sheer murder, I personally would like to see Raul Castro indicted for that murder.I think that to shoot down a civilian aircraft, that was unarmed, over international waters is an act of not just aggression, its an act of murder. And we shouldn’t be all that happy if Raul becomes the new dictator.”
Fidel Castro is a hated figure among the majority of the Cuban-American community here in Southern Florida, many of whom are a generation or two removed from the group of Cubans exiled from their country by Castro when he came to power after his Communist revolution in 1959.
done
Earlier in the day, Huckabee went to the little Havana landmark restaurant,Versailles, where he tried their famous “Cafe Cubano”, a strong, and delectable shot of Cuban Coffee. Huckabee was accompanied by rising Florida Republican star and FL Speaker of the House, Marco Rubio, who endorsed his candidacy recently. Rubio also warned Huckabee that one shot was enough, of the potent turbo-like coffee(this reporter unwittingly drank three).
Boca Raton, FL — It is not often that Giuliani senior adviser Tony Carbonetti agrees to an on-camera interview but with Communications Director Katie Levinson distracted for a moment, I was able to throw a couple questions to “Carbo” following tonight’s debate.
The highlights:
– His reaction to dipping Florida polls: “The (New York) Giants are 12 point underdogs. I don’t care what the pollsters say, you still got to play the game.”
–He calls New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger an “idiot,” in reaction to the Times’ editorial endorsing John McCain and harshly criticizing Giuliani.
Georgia, Russia Close to War Over Breakaway Province Parts of Russia’s 58th Army including 150 tanks and armored vehicles reportedly were moving Friday on the capital of South Ossetia after Georgian troops entered the city in attempt to crush separatist forces seeking to control the breakaway province.
World Leaders Gather to Celebrate Opening of Beijing Games After seven years of buildup and billions of dollars in preparations, world leaders and China’s elite gathered Friday for the most lavish opening ceremony in Olympic history. But Beijing residents without a ticket were asked to stay home.
