I agree with Jim here (although he has more thoughts here). I think it’s simply brilliant, if for no other reason than that–like his Chuck Norris ad–it’s different and it’s going to cut through the clutter. Also, because it projects an incredibly soft image of him, it’s great implicit push-back against the Romney “contrast” ads. I’ve suggested that if Huckabee doesn’t win the nomination, he’ll be an important leader of the Christian right for years to come. Heck, if he doesn’t want to do that, he can become a top-flight media consultant. A friend e-mails about how the ad works on another level:
Don’t know if you’ve seen it yet, but I agree with Geraghty that it is a pretty smart Christmas-season approach. But I wonder if the ad might be even smarter than we think? Already, Drudge is featuring sensationalistic headlines “Huckabee ad features floating cross!” and “Huckabee invokes Jesus!” Pretty soon, CNN could have stories about “Huckabee’s controversial new ad,” which will not only guarantee that the ad gets replayed ad nauseam (and for free!), the inevitable overreach by secularist types will strengthen the Huck-evangelical alliance, and also make Huck look awfully good to “church on Christmas and Easter” types for whom the PC “Merry Holidays” stuff grates.