The Huckabee charm

Scott Martelle:

Mary Kathryn Shouse is part of the Mike Huckabee surge, having newly decided that the homespun former Arkansas governor is "the whole package" of policy and Christian values. And it doesn't hurt that he delivers a speech without seeming like he's delivering a speech.

"I felt that he was very in tune with his audience and that he was speaking to me, and not over my head," Shouse, 42, said a few minutes after the GOP presidential candidate finished a 45- minute talk at a banquet hall in this town hugging the Mississippi River. "I thought it was very comfortable."

If Huckabee's campaign has a secret weapon, it could well be the candidate's gifts as a communicator. Using Southern charm and storytelling, Huckabee's stump speech is more entertainment than oratory. Sharp jabs are cloaked by a smile and a joke, and offered in a cadence reminiscent of a warm-talking preacher -- which he has been -- and a radio host -- which he also has been.

Huckabee enters the room, his name on a banner hung behind a lectern, but he doesn't use the lectern as anything more than a place to rest his arm while he talks.

Huckabee is looking for an intimate engagement with a room full of people -- up to 200.

The overall effect is something like a political self-help guru willing to lead the way to a stronger, more faith-filled society. For a sample, click here to watcha Huckabee speech video.

Darrell Sather, 60, said he's seen all the candidates "up close and personal," but was nearly convinced after listening to a single Huckabee speech at a Coralville convention hall.

"I'm impressed with down-home, direct, honest speaking. I don't get very impressed with the big words," he said. " . . . God likes average people, and that's why he made a whole bunch of us. That's one of my values, and I think he reflects that."

Huckabee tells the boyhood story of his father dragging him down to see the governor because "you may live your whole life and you may never get to meet a governor."

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There is much more. What this suggest is that Huckabee excels at retail politics where connecting with a small audience is the key. It is hard to see him closing the sale with that pitch in New York or Los Angeles, although he might get away with it in Dallas. It does explain his surge in the polls in Iowa where connecting with a small audience is most important. Similar retail politics has also been the tradition in Nebraska, but Huckabee's charm has not had the same effect there.

I do think that the compressed schedule probably has hurt New Hampshire more than Iowa. It has elevated Iowa while squeezing New Hampshire between the first state followed closely by states where the delegate prize is bigger.