Huckabee Shuffle

So, what’s the deal with Mike Huckabee‘s sudden popularity as a presidential candidate? “It’s something in the way he moves,” writes Amy Argetsinger in The Washington Post (12/11/07). Amy sat with a pair of experts in Laban Movement Analysis — Karen Bradley of University of Maryland and Karen Studd of Move to Win — while watching a recent GOP presidential debate. The two Karens think Huckabee is the hands-down winner when it comes to conveying “warmth, strength, energy, whatever it is that makes people think they like and trust you.”

Karen Bradley says she picked up on what she calls Huckabee’s “shaping ability” well before his current surge in the opinion polls. For example, when he talks about “preventive health care, he moves his hand forward and brings his body’s full weight along, his eyebrows lifting in perfect synchronicity.” Karen Studds says the message is “that all of him is invested.” The Karens also say that Huckabee has the best “listening face … eyes wide open, brows at attention, very I’m taking it all in.”

The experts say the other candidates exhibit telling body language, too. John McCain, they say, “doesn’t move a whole heck of a lot,” and evokes “a pyramid — the most stable shape in nature.” Mitt Romney is a flirt — all winks, twinkles and coy expressions. “He’s doing courtship things,” says Karen Bradley. Rudy Giuliani is a fidget … “it’s a gearing up, a preparation, like he’s ready to attack,” says Karen Studds. The Karens say Fred Thompson shows little range and Ron Paul’s “eyes are alert, but his face barely moves … “the focus,” says Badley, “is inside his head.” ~ Tim Manners, editor