A Red County San Bernardino editorial:

As news stories report on former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's phenomenal rise in national and early-state polling, what is not often reported (if ever thus far) is how Huckabee's strength is not reflected in his fundraising. In fact, according to an analysis by Red County San Bernardino, Mike Huckabee has raised, as of the most recent reporting period, a grand total of $2.3 million for his White House bid. That $2.3 million figure reflects contributions received through September 30, 2007.

Huckabee's fundraising haul is less than that for the candidacies of Alan Keyes, Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter and Mike Gravel. All other candidates, Republican and Democrat alike, have left Huckabee in the dust when it comes to successfully reaching out to political donors.

Huckabee's seeming inability to connect with the donor community has been both a blessing and a curse.

Part of Mike Huckabee's quiet but steady rise in public polling comes from Huckabee being able to avoid media scrutiny of his record as a public personality, of which he has been since 1992. His lackluster financing has not made him a target thus far, but given his emerging success in convincing Iowa voters he is a serious candidate means Huckabee's days of being an invisible candidate on a national scale are now all but over.

Mike Huckabee's lack of deft in securing financial contributions will hurt him on two levels. One, he simply cannot afford the vast amounts of professional communications staff needed to respond to attacks from political rivals or media criticism. Therefore, his earned media and rapid response is at a significant disadvantage compared to his opponents.

The second drawback of a void of financial resources is, of course, not being able to communicate with voters directly. When the political attacks start flying on television and radio and mail, how can Huckabee respond? The answer is Huckabee will not be as effective in responding on TV or mail as his candidates will be in making charges against Huckabee. And that is not counting likely criticism of his record from 527s, like the Club For Growth, which has long been critical of Huckabee's support for increasing taxes as a first, second and last resort.

It is fun watching Huckabee's rise from single digits to a contender. But, like all public servants, Huckabee has a public record that his opponents will attempt to exploit. If Huckabee can withstand the expected onslaught of negative advertising against him, he will have re-written the rules for modern campaigning. If he can't, analysts will chalk up Huckabee's defeat to a lack of financial resources needed to cope with the deep pockets of Rudy McRomney (and Ron Paulsom).

Or, maybe Mike Huckabee will just unleash Chuck Norris on his opponents.