Opinion: Breaking News: Huckabee picks ‘running mate’
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Former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee has only one caucus triumph in Iowa and a third-place primary finish in New Hampshire to his credit this presidential season. But that didn’t stop the Republican from formally announcing his vice presidential running mate tonight: Stephen Colbert, the Comedy Central channel comedian from ‘The Colbert Report.’
Using a split screen with Huckabee in South Carolina for Thursday’s GOP debate on Fox News, Colbert put candidate Huckabee through a quiz. Would he, Colbert demanded, chase Osama bin Laden into hell, as Sen. John McCain has vowed?
‘And beyond,’ replied Huckabee.
Colbert, who abandoned his mock presidential run last fall after South Carolina Democrats barred him from the primary ballot, started hinting to the ex-governor about his willingness to join a Huckabee ticket, citing his extensive foreign policy experience as trips to Sandals resorts in both Jamaica and the Bahamas.
Apparently, Huckabee was impressed. ‘Stephen,’ he said, ‘please be my running mate.’
‘Yes,’ replied Colbert, ‘a thousand times yes.’
So it’s official, a fusion ticket between a Republican and whatever Colbert really is, since he was planning to run in both parties’ primaries in South Carolina.
-- Andrew Malcolm