Huckabee pans power of polls

So Mike Huckabee isn't a fan of polls.

Sure, you're probably thinking it's no surprise Mr. Low Single Digits would be critical of obsessive political polling. It's sort of like a plump chicken being anti-ax.

But the former governor of Arkansas and 2008 Iowa caucuses winner has a point when he argues that polling is becoming too powerful in shaping the presidential campaign, from media coverage to candidate debates. The need for a campaign focused on ideas and issues, Huckabee contends, is being swallowed in a sea of survey-driven spectacle.

Huckabee, who met with our editorial board Monday, compared our current politics to people who watch NASCAR races mainly to see spectacular wrecks. 'I'm really fearful that we've created a situation where people are watching this election cycle for the wrecks, not for the performance of the cars,' he said.

It's a vicious vortex of polls, celebrity and TV ratings.

Polls are used to limit and position candidates on the main stage at televised debates, where, as he puts it, 'it's all about the circus.' Moderators ask questions designed more to spark conflict and stoke ratings than to chart a course for the country. And in this election cycle, candidates who excel at making a spectacle tend to climb in the polls, grab the spotlight and command center stage.

Huckabee insists undercard debates between candidates with lower poll numbers actually have been more substantive. At one such forum, Huckabee said four undercard candidates had twice as much governing experience as nine main stage rivals.

And when he did make the main stage, Huckabee was asked whether he thought Donald Trump has the character to be president, or why, you guessed it, Huckabee's poll numbers are so low.

'Governor, you're not doing very well in the polls. How do you fix that?' Huckabee said, giving an example. 'Well, first I'm going to come over there and punch you in the nose and get a lot of publicity, and people will love me for that and my poll numbers will go up.'

If only Huckabee had done it, he might be a contender.

This is, clearly, the polling-est campaign I've ever seen. When the Republican front-runner spends remarkably long stretches of his public bloviations lauding his amazing poll numbers and denigrating polls that don't show his lead as adequately yuge, something's seriously amiss. We're casually shoving aside serious candidates and their ideas based on snapshot polling, some of very dubious quality, before a single caucus is called to order. And we're acting as if we've never been burned by lousy polling.

But maybe that's really what we want now, politics as sports. Tell me the score. Show me the highlights, and, of course, the wrecks. Don't bore us with a bunch of thick policy details. Dazzle us with the entertaining excesses of Trumpian combat. Grab us by our microscopic attention spans or get off the stage.

That's too cynical. Truth is, there still are many, many people who understand we're picking the nation's leader, not a celebrity apprentice. They're taking it seriously. With any luck, some of them will show up on caucus night.

How many? Good question. Somebody ought to do a poll.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com