Huckabee Watch: "No Advantage Being the Frontrunner Now"

2008 White House hopeful Mike Huckabee said there's no real advantage to being the G.O.P. frontrunner now, because he has nowhere to go but up.

CQPolitics.com has a report on Huckabee's realistic look at his status in the crowded race for the Republican nomination.

"There’s really no advantage in being in first place right now,” said Huckabee at the breakfast, organized by the Christian Science Monitor. “If you’re in first place right now, there’s really only one direction you can go, and it’s not a good one.”

More tidbits from the piece:

*Huckabee began fundraising last week in Iowa

*While he's way behind the big dogs now, he believes the money will follow when his conservative message gets out.

*Huckabee said, “As people begin to drill deep into the issues that are perhaps represented by some of the perceived front-runners,” he believes it will become “clear” that those candidates “may not be in step with the majority of the Republican base.”

*But some on the right are already attacking the former Arkansas Governor. The Club for Growth has called him a "tax raiser." "Frankly, I don’t know why the Club for Growth has taken the position they have,” said Huckabee, who denied the group’s characterization of him as a “tax raiser.” Huckabee said he implemented more than 90 different tax cuts during his tenure as governor, and signed the first-ever broad-based tax cut in Arkansas. He defended the taxes that he did increase, stating the actions had broad support and were necessary to repair roads and deal with other important local problems.

*And on the assertion that Governor's lack the needed foreign policy experience to run the country? "All governors may not have what I call ‘Washington’s’ view, but what they do have is the perspective of being commander in chief where 80 percent of our National Guard men and women have ended up deploying to Iraq,” said Huckabee.