Huckabee hitting The Big Time?

Posted Nov 7, 2007 by By Krista Klaus

Updated Nov 7, 2007 at 05:10 PM

Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee sat through the first 30 minutes of Sunday’s Republican debate, barely uttering a word.

    The cash-challenged governor from Arkansas listened patiently as Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Fred Thompson traded jabs about who was the party’s true Republican.

    Huckabee wasn’t in on the fracas, and he liked it that way.

    “I’m not interested in fighting these guys,” he told the crowd of more than 4,000 Florida Republicans at Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando. “What I’m interested in is fighting for the American people.”

    Huckabee nabbed the moniker “dark horse candidate” over the weekend. Even though polls conducted by major media outlets put Huckabee in a distant fifth, polls of socially conservative voters are beginning to place him at the top of the pack.

    After the debate, I asked him what he thinks of the fact that pundits are calling him the guy to watch in the weeks ahead.

    “They’re smart people,” Huckabee said.

    “They’re good people when they say that.”