Mike Huckabee Announces 2016 Run for White House
BLITZER: The field of Republican candidates here in the United States got a little bit more crowded. The former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee officially kicked off his run for the White House today. Huckabee started by taking direct aim at President Obama. He says the president has not delivered on the hope and change he promised.</s>MIKE HUCKABEE, (R), FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 93 million Americans don't have jobs and many of them who do have seen their full-time job with benefits they once had become two part-time jobs with no benefits at all. We were promised hope. But it was just talk. And now we need the kind of change that really could get America from hope to higher ground.</s>BLITZER: Let's bring in our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger; and chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash. Gloria, what does Huckabee's formal entry into the race mean among evangelical voters? GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST; It means the field is getting really crowded almost like up to a half dozen or so that occupy the space that he basically had to himself in 2008. You know, he ran very successfully in 2008. He was the overall delegate runner- up in 2008. Did very well in Iowa. And so if he's going to have a serious presidential campaign he's going to have to do well in Iowa and a lot of folks standing in his way right now.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think there's something we should underscore in that in the dozen or so Republicans likely to be running this time around he is the only one who's actually won a presidential primary contest in Iowa and he actually won seven at the end of the day -- seven others, so eight total, all together. But as Gloria said, it was a different time. I was with him in Iowa in 2007 when it was him and Chuck Norris riding around in a pick-up truck trying to figure out who their supporters were. And now there are a lot of people like Mike Huckabee, in that vain, trying to appeal to the evangelicals, Christian conservatives. The thing you heard in the speech he was successful at and will be likely this time the populist message. He can relate to people on that level on the working class level, like no one else can, because in fairness to him it's authentic.</s>BORGER: He's been out making a lot of money.</s>BASH: That's true.</s>BORGER: He's not the populist that he was in 2008 because he's a lot richer than he was back in 2008.</s>BASH: Owns a million-dollar home in Florida.</s>BORGER: Right. More power to him. It is a different race this time. One thing he has going for him the likeability. His campaign is putting out all those polls that show that among all the Republicans, Jeb Bush included, Mike Huckabee is well liked. We saw today in his announcement speech, he is probably, I would say, one of the top communicators in this Republican field. He's got a great way with a phrase. And, you know, that will do him well in these debates.</s>BLITZER: Did well in Iowa back in 2008. Let's see how he does this time. Our latest CNN/ORC poll, Dana, shows that he's got 9 percent among Republicans, significantly behind Jeb Bush, who is at 17 percent. Not that far away from Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Still very, very early as you look at that. It's wide open on the Republican side.</s>BASH: It is wide open. And I have to tell you, talking to advisors to Rubio and Walker, those who are doing well in the polls right now, they would actually prefer to be in Mike Huckabee's position. It seems counterintuitive but it's because, it is early, they know the dangers historically of peeking too early. Better to stay under the radar, get your sea legs with regard to the grassroots in some of these early states before you become such a big player when it comes to the polls that, you know, that you're not ready for it. On the flip side, when doing well, it means it's easier to raise dollars.</s>BORGER: They're kind of happy to have him in the race. They're feeling is the more the merrier at this point because they've got this big field and they believe their guy can distinguish himself and can do it early on and if Huckabee wants to get in that's just fine. The evangelical voters split up the Cruz people believe, for example, they have an advantage this time. One problem Huckabee has is he doesn't do really well raising money. He's always had a problem raising money. More of these other candidates can go to more establishment Republicans and actually get some bucks out of them. And I think that's the problem for Huckabee. But another point he makes, and Dana can speak to this, he says he's more electable beaten the Clinton machine in Arkansas once and he can do it again.</s>BLITZER: It's interesting he went to Hope, Arkansas. There was another man that went to Hope, Arkansas.</s>BORGER: You heard that.</s>BLITZER: Hope, Arkansas, is not only the hometown of Mike Huckabee but Bill Clinton. He's going to run on that anti-Clinton --</s>BASH: Absolutely.</s>BLITZER: A very popular thing to do among Republicans.</s>BASH: It is. Going back to 2007, 2008 he tried that. Before the Iowa caucuses, everybody thought Hillary Clinton was pretty be a shoe in, and then Obama beat her and the rest is history. He started to hone the anti-Clinton, "I can beat the Clinton machine, I'm from Arkansas," message back then. It looks like, who knows, that is going to be much more of a sustainable message as he goes forward.</s>BORGER: His campaign is interesting to me. They took pains to point out that he's beaten women as he's run for elective office in the past, a lieutenant governor. So he's not one of the Republicans who doesn't know how to run against women. He knows how to run against women, whatever that means by the way.</s>BLITZER: It's just starting. Six Republicans officially in this race for the White House. Gloria, Dana, thanks very much. Still to come, they say politics is all about perception but, if that's the case, Hillary Clinton may have a bit of a problem right now. We'll have that story right after the break.