A snow day lets Huckabee enjoy America’s pastime

Outside of transmission trouble on nearby Interstate 80, there wouldn’t seem to be much reason to stop in Van Meter, Iowa, (population 866) on a frigid December day. Or a blistering humid August one, for that matter.

But when a massive ice storm virtually paralyzed presidential campaigning across much of Iowa last week, new Republican front-runner Mike Huckabee was found by The Times’ Seema Mehta enjoying himself immensely in the tiny town. His half a dozen campaign stops for the day had been canceled, and Huckabee had to hang around for another day anyway for the final GOP Iowa debate.

So the former Arkansas governor, an avid baseball fan -- albeit for the St. Louis Cardinals -- made an impromptu visit to a baseball museum in Van Meter honoring the town’s most famous citizen, Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller, who just happens to have endorsed Huckabee. What a coincidence!

A gawky farm boy with a freckled face, Feller came out of the Iowa cornfields in the 1940s, took the train east and pitched his way into Cleveland Indians history with a fastball that was considerably quicker than even the worst speeder out on the interstate, which had not been invented when Feller left.

Huckabee toured the Van Meter museum with Feller, pausing to marvel at baseball artifacts, including a wooden bat signed by Babe Ruth.

Of course, even a Southern Baptist preacher couldn’t resist the temptation of throwing a little dig at opponent Mitt Romney, a Boston Red Sox fan who recently was off by one year when citing his team’s World Series drought.

“I was in the stadium,” Huckabee boasted, “the night when Boston beat St. Louis in St. Louis and won the World Series and broke the 86- -- it was 86, not 87, Mitt -- 86-year losing streak.

“It was incredible,” Huckabee added. “And it was about the fifth inning that it occurred to me that, you know, I’m hoping the Cardinals win . . . sitting there thinking, but you know what, if Boston wins, I mean I’m going to be sitting in the middle of one of the greatest pieces of sports history in the entire century. So it was like, I don’t care.”

So, here’s the banner headline for Missouri voters: Huckabee declares: ‘I don’t care’ if Cards lose.

Chelsea hits the trail

It’s rare to see or hear from Chelsea Clinton on the campaign trail. But she surfaced recently and, in one exchange, provided a small insight into the influence of eight years of early life living in the White House.

As part of the effort by her mom’s presidential campaign to distract attention from the major attraction in the state -- the Oprah/Obama Express -- the 27-year-old former first daughter was at Hillary Clinton’s side. The pair, along with the candidate’s mother, Dorothy Rodham, mixed with voters at stops across Iowa.

In the best tradition of Camp Clinton, however, they spent no time chatting with the press. So the best bet for a reporter to glean any information was to lurk nearby as she pressed the flesh, which is exactly what The Times’ Peter Nicholas did.

In Madison County, a man smiled at her and said she was a role model who compared favorably to President Bush’s twin daughters. He then made reference to some drinking episodes involving Jenna and Barbara Bush when they were underage.

You wouldn’t do that, he said to Chelsea.

“No, but I . . . “ she said, and hesitated, “I grew up with it” -- an apparent reference to the fact that she was just 12 when she began living in the White House.

Later, she told another voter: “I’m also a control freak.”

Magazine likes Romney

This may not have an immediate impact in Iowa, where Mike Huckabee has gotten hotter as the weather has gotten colder, but Mitt Romney rightfully can revel in an embrace from a tried-and-true conservative voice: the National Review.

In its endorsement editorial, the magazine offers powerful phrasing that Romney’s presidential campaign can -- and probably will -- use to rebut those on the right still disturbed by his conversion from liberal positions on several social issues. The editorial terms him “a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest.”

Harry Reid’s troubles

Some indications that Sen. Harry Reid, whom we see so much on national TV criticizing pretty much everything he’s asked about, is in some political difficulty back home in Nevada.

The job of Democratic Senate majority leader can be a dangerous one, as the party’s major spokesman. Sen. Tom Daschle became former senator after his tour as majority leader; the folks in South Dakota came to think he wasn’t paying enough attention to home.

Reid has never been Nevada’s most popular politician. The last time he had a serious Republican opponent -- John Ensign in 1998 -- the results were very close. Two recent newspaper polls found 49% and 51% of voters disapprove of Reid’s job performance, while 39% and 32% gave him a favorable rating.

That almost invites a strong Republican challenger should Reid decide to run again in 2010. Reid told the Roll Call newspaper he regretted being the party’s face in bitter partisan battles with President Bush.

The highest-ranking elected Mormon in the nation’s history, he predicted he’d be in fine shape by 2010.

More Obama relatives

It seemed a surprise for all concerned to learn earlier this year that Barack Obama is related to Dick Cheney (as well as, it turns out, to George W. Bush). Now, Obama’s genetic mix (black father from Kenya; white mother from Kansas) has garnered him a chance to join the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

The head of the society’s Iowa branch, Mike Rowley, extended the invite in a letter, noting that ancestral research had determined the Democratic presidential contender -- through his mother’s side -- shares a blood line with Revolutionary War veteran John Miles Duvall.

In urging Obama to sign up, Rowley said that if he acted quickly, another honor would follow. He invited Obama to join him and other members of the society’s state chapter later this month at a cemetery in Montrose, Iowa. There, Obama’s induction would be celebrated and homage paid to Cato Mead, the one black Revolutionary War soldier known to have settled -- and died -- in the Hawkeye State.

We tracked down Rowley, 50, at his suburban Des Moines home where he displayed the political savvy we expected from Iowans. He said even though time was growing short, he hoped to organize the event at Mead’s grave site while Iowa is awash with presidential wannabes. Once the state’s Jan. 3 caucuses are over, he agreed, candidate visits to Iowa will be few and far between.

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Excerpted from The Times’ political blog, Top of the Ticket, at latimes.com/topoftheticket