Laughing All the Way to the Polls

In the middle of what might have been a mind-numbingly dull description of his flat tax proposal, presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) managed to crack up the crowd with a zinger: “We've had a Congress that's spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop.”

That line, and others like it, has helped define Huckabee’s long-shot campaign, where sly jokes and improvised cracks at public appearances may very well be contributing to the growing size of his following. But while he has received an ample amount of attention for it, humor has been a critical part of the entire 2008 campaign.

To be fair, humor has always been important, designed to make a candidate look more casual and approachable. But in today’s era of YouTube and The Daily Show, it seems like it’s more pressing than ever. A single clever comment can spread online and bring a candidate sometimes unexpected levels of press, both positive and negative. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) online video where she and her family reenacted the final scene from The Sopranos was well received in the media. Huckabee’s joke about Edwards’ $400 haircuts even launched a fundraising campaign in which supporters contributed the amount they spent on their last trip to the salon, earning him $400,000.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll taken in August showed that eight out of 10 voters think it is “somewhat” or “very important” for a presidential candidate to have a sense of humor. Devon Weiss, a freshman at Northwestern University, agreed that humor and charisma were important traits for a candidate.

“You want someone you can relate to,” he said. “That’s why some presidents are ultimately liked more than others.”

But humor can also be a minefield, since a botched joke could cost a campaign. Take this incident with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at a town hall meeting in New Hamsphire on Sept. 4. A young adult asked if McCain was too old to be president, he replied, “Thanks for the question, you little jerk. You’re drafted.” The joke was received well by the crowd because of McCain’s delivery, but on paper it read like an off-color insult.

Alice Stewart, the press secretary for the Huckabee campaign, suggested that Huckabee has managed to avoid that trap since his wit comes naturally. She said that most of his jokes come off the cuff, and he very rarely scripts his humor, a rarity among politicians.

“He’s always used humor to draw people in,” she said. “People approach him in awe, and he just uses his humor to put them at ease.”

Just as her husband used an appearance playing “Heartbreak Hotel” on his sax on the Arsenio Hall show to spur his campaign on, Clinton has been using humor to build up her charisma. She recently received praise for a line at a forum on faith. After being asked what she prays for, she replied, “Oh Lord, why can't you help me lose weight?”

With the popularity of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, especially among young voters, candidates are clamoring for appearances to show their off-the-cuff wit. The Daily Show reaches one million viewers aged 18-35, and 13 percent of people between 18 and 25 watch it regularly. A killer joke with Jon Stewart can pay dividends if it brings in youth voters, a group notorious for not showing up to the polls.

Before withdrawing from the race, long-shot Gov. Tom Vilsack (D-Iowa) was a Daily Show regular, where he good-naturedly accepted the mascot of a duck that squawked “Vilsack.” Edwards even took the trend a step further when he used an appearance to announce his candidacy back in 2004.

The comments on The Daily Show’s Indecision 2008 Web site show how effective an appearance can be, since videos of candidate interviews spark intense discussion in the comments section. Most turn positive for the candidates, with posters praising the wit and declaring their support.

Huckabee’s charisma has helped propell him from an unknown (Stephen Colbert once cracked “Even Dennis Kucinich was asking ‘Who the hell is Mike Huckabee?’”) to a first-tier candidate following his surprising second-place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll.

Alice Stewart said Huckabee’s humor and his appearances on The Colbert Report have allowed him to reach the types of audiences that a lower-tier candidate wouldn’t normally attract.

“A lot of people who had never heard of him saw him [on The Colbert Report] and his name resonated in their mind,” she said. “He’s able to open doors he wouldn’t normally get through,” she said.

Even more than building buzz around a candidate, humor can serve to deflect criticism. After detractors decried Edwards in 2004 for using his famous “son of a mill worker” line too often, he started turning the line into a joke, leading off “as you may have heard, I grew up the son of a mill worker.”

McCain received criticism for an attempt at a joke in response to a question about foreign policy; he sang “Bomb Iran” to the tune of “Barbara Ann,” the Beach Boys hit. He made a significant attempt at deflating the issue, though, when he entered his next public appearance with the classic song playing in the background.

However, candidate humor may be important to some voters, not just to the candidates themselves as a tactic to get out the vote. How a candidate uses humor could provide some hints for how a president would behave in office, Weiss said.

“They’re the face of the United States,” he said. “You’d definitely want to be represented by someone that has some charisma.”