Iowa voters have long been known to shun politicians who use negative ads and often end up supporting the target of the ad, even when the information in the ad is accurate. As the voters enjoy the nickname of being nice voters, they can quickly turn on their favorite candidates in the wake of negative campaign ads. The recent flurry of ads attacking the current front-runner, Mike Huckabee may come back to haunt the ads' sponsor Mitt Romney, but Huckabee's non-attack announcement could come back to bite him.
Campaign staff had suggested to Huckabee respond with his own negative ads against Romney and with a slight edge in Iowa 2008 polls beginning to slip, according to numbers posted at usaelectionpolls.com reflecting this sentiment, the Republican presidential hopeful went along with shooting the ad. However, he apparently had second thoughts about using the ad and a group of reporters he gather to show his new ads were treated with Huckabee saying he changed his mind an would not release the ad.
After explaining he wanted to keep the process on a positive note, he then showed the ad to the reporters to demonstrate why he did not feel it was appropriate to air. Some detractors claim he knew the ad content would become press fodder and used the approach as a back-door effort slam his opponent without actually paying for the advertising.
Since Iowa is not a winner-take-all caucus process, Huckabee remains in line to pick up a majority of the available Republican delegates, unless voters there believe his attempts to remain positive were merely an attempt to shed a bad light on another candidate.
Breaking News: Obama and Huckabee are predicted winners before caucus has started.
