Opinion: Huckabee’s schedule -- subject to change?

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Manchester, N.H. -- Mike Huckabee’s victory in Iowa raises an immediate question: Will he conduct a more aggressive, and serious, campaign than his early plans for Friday indicate?

The schedule his campaign sent out before the caucuses actually began has him making a single appearance -- a rally at a college in Henniker, N.H., where he will play his bass guitar with a local band (Mama Kicks) and share the stage with his best-known supporter, Chuck Norris.

It is a stop that is of a piece with the campaign that helped spark his surprise rise in Iowa -- down-home and easygoing. But it is an stop that does not seem designed to take full advantage of his changed status -- the closest thing the Republicans have, at the moment, to a front-runner in their presidential race.

In terms of his campaign organization, Huckabee has been running for president on a wing and a prayer (in his case, literally and figuratively). The political leanings and demographics of New Hampshire also make a win for him a stretch, despite the wave he will now be riding. Still, he can’t afford to be embarrassed in the state, and one of his main challenges in the next 24 hours will be to kick his politicking into a higher gear here before Tuesday’s primary.

-- Don Frederick