Opinion: The Colbert bump: A second wave?
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I’m trying to figure out what Mike Huckabee’s appearance on the Colbert Reportwas supposed to accomplish -- spending time with a satire talk show host who tried to run in a Democratic primary and makes fun of conservatives? Maybe he’s trying steal away some independents from John McCain’s fanbase. Or maybe he just likes breaking picket lines around talk shows.
Huckabee’s performance got mixed reviews:
Buzzflash thinks ‘he might make a decent late-night host.’ Jonathan Adler at the National Review Online agrees. While he ‘heard Laura Ingraham griping about Huckabee’s appearance on the Colbert Report last night,’
I caught the show, and I had a different take. The Huckster’s Colbert appearance highlighted many of the things that have made him popular. He is extremely likable in such low pressure settings. He has a good sense of humor and comic timing, and it served him well in his back and forth with Colbert. Being an anti-Huck guy, I would have liked him to fall flat, but he didn’t.
The New York Times Caucus blog was a little more skeptical:
There is a cardinal rule to being a guest on “The Colbert Report”: Never, ever, ever try to be the funny one. That’s Mr. Colbert’s job. If you break that rule, chances are you will look 1) a lot less clever than he does and 2) like you’re trying too hard. Last night, Mike Huckabee broke the rule. Several times. Judge for yourself how it worked out. And train your eyes on Mr. Huckabee as he attempts to keep a straight face.
I’m leaning toward the Caucus’ view: The former governor from Arkansas tried to start off the funny by praising the ‘Colbert bump’ (which he said came from the last time he appeared on the show) and almost lost it in the process with the Huckaburger recipe. And it took him a split-second too long to react to Colbert’s query: ‘Are we the candidates who think that the devil and Jesus were brothers?’
But I have to admit, it did make me laugh -- though apparently not as much as it did the Oregonian’s Idiot Box blog, which called it ‘brilliant’:
I think his visits to the Report really could help get Huckabee on the Republican ticket, as strange and unlikely as that seems. But then will he actually ask Stephen to be his running mate?
A Huckabee-Colbert ticket ... Chuck Norris must be crying into his pillow right now.