Authenticity, Sincerity, and Candor

Those are the three words former House Speaker Newt Gingrich used while speaking to the National Press Club in Washington today to describe Mike Huckabee's campaign to become our next president.

Newt gets it.

The national media does not. At least, not yet.

Witness Bill Sammon on FoxNews tonight, who framed the contest underway in Iowa in terms of Romney v Giuliani and implied that Huckabee is simply angling for a VP nod. Tripe!

What Huckabee IS doing is what people like Gingrich and millions of others across this country have been wanting to see for a long time: He's growing as a candidate with each passing day. He's speaking in terms of patriotism over partisanship. And, hopefully, he will (as Newt predicted) emerge as the most interesting dark horse candidate in American history.

Cynical reporters like Sammon assume that Huckabee steers away from attacks on the other candidates, because he is shooting for #2.

Clearly, Sammon doesn't know much about Mike Huckabee.

And, if last Sunday's debate in Des Moines is any barometer of true feelings in Iowa, Sammon won't be the only pundit with a surprised look on his face after the Ames straw poll.

Huckabee is better at communicating and connecting with an audience than any candidate out there--in either party. Those strengths should take him to the top of the GOP slate and on to the White House.