And then there were ... [counts on fingers] ... six Republicans running for president. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced his run Tuesday morning at an event in his doubly symbolic birthplace of Hope, Arkansas. Naturally, Huckabee's announcement featured the hottest and most relevant entertainment:
Tony Orlando, a music start from the 1970s, is performing a song in Hope he wrote for Mike Huckabee called "America is my hometown."
— @jameshohmann
What, no
Ted Nugent? No Duggars?
Huckabee also signaled an entertaining campaign to come on his own merits:
“I never thought about using a firearm to murder someone” — Huckabee, 2016
— @samsteinhp
Not to mention that "As president, I promise you that we will no longer merely try to contain jihadism, we will conquer it. We will deal with jihadis just as we would deal with deadly snakes." In short, this should be entertaining.
10:11 AM PT: Huckabee struggled with fundraising in 2008, but there are right ways and wrong ways to change that:
"I will be funded and fueled not by the billionaires, but by working people who will find out that $15 and $25 a month contributions can take us from Hope to higher ground," he said. And then he added, to laughter, "Now, rest assured, if you want to give a million dollars, please do it." It was mostly a joke. It also violated campaign finance law.
Har har. Super funny in a campaign cycle where Jeb Bush is delaying his official campaign announcement to allow him more time to legally ask for million-dollar contributions to his super PAC.