>> bloomberg politics presents -- it's the heaviest jamming and the wildest ripping. >> are farmers and ranchers provide food and fiber. >> it all goes down at the university of arkansas community college. with special opening acts tony orlando. ♪

john: happy cinco de mayo sports fans. enough about jeb bush, today was about mike huckabee at the university of arkansas community college in a town where he and bill clinton call home. they started off with tony orlando. he was followed by my mike huckabee's wife and then m ike himself about going from hope to higher ground. michaelmike huckabee: an unknown freshman senator made great speeches about hope and change. eight years later, our debt has more than doubled, america's leadership in the world has evaporated and the country is

more polarized than ever in my lifetime. we were promised hope. it was just talk. now we need the kind of change that really could get america from hope to higher ground. [applause] john: mark< he still believes in a place called hope? . how did he do? mark: he was more focused than fiery. eight years is a long time for him to come back with basically the same act and a lot more competition and iowa. last time it was mitt romney and now we has to be people like ted cruz, rand paul and a host of other candidates -- rick santorum. he did great, but more fiery. he will need more fire. john: largely substance free. i just say he has two things -- he has the evangelical

theme. this was a speech that had more economic populists and that is what he ran for in 2008. i'm wondering if he made a strategic choice -- downplayed the social conservatism. it was the card you playedhe played today. mark: it was more like a corporate hate speech than it was about a guy on a mission to win the nomination, win the white house and renew america. i know he believes in that, but it don't think he showed as much zeal. john: that plays into a question we have been asking which he has been a little low-key. we will see what he brings to the table. mark: fox news gave huckabee all the coverage they could. they even took them over president obama live. huckabee used to be worked in at fox. he quit in early january to run

for president and since then he has nevernot been seen or heard. john, out there today, what did we learn from huckabee and about him that we have not learned before? john: there is a question about whether we learned much about him that we did not know before. except for the emphasis shift this is the mike huckabee from 2008. there is not much that is new. that is a big strategic challenge for him because he is surrounded by fresh new faces. mark: if today was a roadmap to how he was going to run, it was a lot more about hope and about his biography than it was about his governing record. given the attacks on his governing record last time, i thought he might try to paint a picture on his success as a conservative governor. he barely did that. john: he is not the only guy who has done this so far. clar jaeraerear jabs at the clintons

and jeb bush. he has views about wall street that are outside the republican mainstream. also talking about not having very much money and not being from a dynasty and the talk about washington corridor of power. mark: he will be talking about saving social security in a different way. john: the republican establishment gives mike huckabee about a good as a chance to win the republican nomination as lance armstrong does of winning a polygraph. some don't even consider him a second-tier candidate. huckabeed did win the iowa caucuses in 2008 and was the overall delegate runner-up to john mccain. let's say he has a chance to win the nomination. what is the path? mark: he new hampshire becomes a

contest in a different lane. win south carolina and as one of the pure southern candidates, cleans up and wins a lot of southern primaries. john: it all starts in iowa for him more than any other candidate. if he does not win iowa, he is done. mark: i disagree. the winner of iowa might win with 21%. i don't think he needs to win iowa. if he is alive in the southern primaries, he could win the nomination. john: with a record number of votes eight years ago and then to fill this time, it would got him. ut him. mark: the early states will not matter as much necessarily. 16 candidates buying television time. i don't think television time will matter as much as campaigns go. he will star in the debates again. john: you need the money to play

the longer. if you don't have the money in the beginning, if he does not win iowa i don't know where the money would come from. those big multistate primaries where he has a lot of chances. mark: jeb bush one-on-one -- mike huckabee versus jeb bush one-on-one. john: that is a fight he wants. mark: athe year 2000, al gore was in iowa and mike huckabee was back in arkansas. it was fitting and proper that two figures that played a big role in the last century had rare print interviews. al gore began a three-day trip in iowa. he said that iowans should pressure presidential candidates to put climate change high up on the platforms. chelsea clinton told the washington post that their family is no stranger to scrutiny. what do you make of these interviews? john: chelsea clinton, not

surprising at all. she said some things that are expected. what is al gore doing in iowa if not stirring up trouble? mark: he does this all over the country. he does workshops on the environment. he said in the interview that he wants the environment to be part of the candidates' agenda. john: it is on the brink of a presidential campaign. he feel cares about climate change. h hee has a mischievous side . mark: the are a lot of people that said if hillary clinton does not support it, she could lose. up next, we break down the gravy for mike huckabee's speech. i go literally inside a hillary clinton campaign video to fact check the fact checker. formeran expose of interview with the man in the news, mr. barber,

after this. ♪

mark: our guest tonight once told us that you don't learn much from the second kick of a mule. people are still trying to figure out what it means. the former mississippi governor haley barbour is back on the show. i want to start with a man of the hour other than yourself -- mike huckabee. how do you think he did today? fmr. gov. barbour: well, i was at work. i was traveling part of the day. he is a very attractive candidate. he is well known to a lot of people. he has a real starting place. i think he is going to be a candidate that has a real chance to catch on. we have a very large field. a lot of people's records of achievement include mike huckabee and no true front runner. anybody can tell you who was

going to win the nomination and will lie to you about other stuff. i think mike huckabee has a starting place. he won iowa last time. he is very likable. he is not somebody who has a chip on his shoulder. mark: just to clarify -- you have not endorsed a candidate so far, correct? fmr. gov. barbour: no. in 2008 and 2012, i did not. mark: so far this year in your big field of 15 or so candidates , who is having a good year so far and wide? hjy?y? fmr. gov. barbour: a lot of them have really something to offer. yesterday, two two candidates announced that are probably among the least known -- carly fiorina and ben carson. ben carson has a great life story. a premier doctor at johns hopkins.

fiorina is incredibly successful. very articulate. mark: they have great resumes. i'm just wondering if anybody has done anything this year in the context of the candidates who you would single out and say they are being good on this issue or playing politics mark. not endorsing them. fmr. gov. barbour: several people have done some good things. i don't think anybody has done anything bad or permanent damage to themselves. mark: nobody stands out to you on any particular issue or strategy that you would say is smart? fmr. gov. barbour: well, i think in the last couple of years rand paul has worked very hard for people to recognize he is a tolerant person. that is not to say he is a moderate, he is not. he is somebody that is temperate. he has spoken to a lot of groups.

i think that has been good for him. i think it has been good for chris christie to just be somebody who says i will tell the truth whether it is popular or not. i thought his entitlement speech was something smart because it emphasizes something people are not thinking about. he will tell you the truth whether you like it or not. i think jeb bush has been very smart to say i will be what i am for. i know there are people that don't agree with me, but i will not deviate from that. scott walker i thought got off to a very good start. he's got a good political personality. he is a good political performer. he was born in iowa. there are a lot of people, as you can tell, that have done some things right. it is a long way from here to there. this campaign is in front of us. john: let me shift the focus to the other side of the aisle and let me ask you about hillary clinton. she has had some bad press

coverage and a lot of questions being raised because of her e-mail controversy and now the foundation. can you point to some specific things that you find it troubling in either the book that was written or the news accounts? what is a specific thing that troubles you about her? fmr. gov. barbour: the question is are the clintons be held to the same standards as everybody else? that is more troubling. a lot of these things have been known before. i've never had any idea there was anybody in the united states that had to have their own server because they did not think their cell phone could get messages from two different servers. funny, mine does even in mississippi. the contributions to the campaign -- the foundation -- i have spoken for the clinton foundation. i did not get paid a penny for doing it. i spoke for them twice. when i look back at mitt romney

saying before his campaign started that he reported $347,000 in speaking fees for the entire year before, and "the huffington post" ridiculed him for saying that was not very much money, president clinton averaged $12 million a year the whole time mrs. clinton was secretary of state and seems to have a lot of people in the press giving them a free pass. mark: governor, i take your point it is early in the campaign, but i want you to weigh in -- if hillary clinton is the democratic nominee, was to be hard or easy to beat for the republicans? fmr. gov. barbour: elections that have had the white house for eight years are typically very close unless there is a big event like a recession that starts before the election. even though the recession we now

look back and started in december of 2007, it was the fall of 2008 before the public really felt it. that was a really close election until then. 2000 was very close. you go back bill clinton got elected president with 43% of the vote. usually after an eight year election, it is very competitive. i think this will be competitive. i don't think secretary clinton will be easy to beat but i don't think she is anything like unbeatable. i think it'll be a very competitive election. i think the republicans have a very good chance of keeping intact the fact that only one since world war ii has a party kept the white house for more than two terms. i don't think the american people want obama to have a third term. john: i guess you are saying she is beatable. fmr. gov. barbour: yes sir. that is a more sustainedccint way. us country boys take us a little while.

john: it sounds a lot prettier coming out of your mouth. thank you for coming on. when we come back, we will be shoppingucking and clucking more over huck. we will be right back. ♪

john: mike huckabee's latest book is called "gods, guns grits and gravy." it is something we think the governor would appreciate. let's start with him talking about using a firearm. mike ofmike huckabee: it was here where i learned how to use a firearm and a fishing pole. i got my first bb gun at age five. it was a daisy model 25 that i still have. it is in mint condition. i learned the basic rules of gun safety and never thought about using a firearm to murder someone.

i worked with ymmy dad and grandfather to catch catfish. it was here that i was baptized after accepting jesus in a vacation bible school when i was 10 years old. mark: very personal, very biographical. how much will that help them in iowa, south carolina, mississippi? john: this is a candidate where the reason his populism is potentially as ways of is because it is routedoted to who he is. mark: what about the fact that he is a millionaire? john: it is tricky for him, but he earned it the hard way. he struggled for a long time. he has a real rags to riches story. the actual policy positions, or at least the adrdrdent support

of gun rights, will play very well. mark: he is going up against a much bigger field. it is a great story but he has connected it's a policy and i think that is the biggest weakness. all right, now the fight against iran. mike huckabee: we put more pressure on our ally israel to seize building bedrooms for their families than we do on iran from building a bomb. when i hear our current resident asking christians to get off their high horse to make nice with radical jihadists, i wonder -- i wonder if he could watch a western from the 1950's and be able to figure out who the good guys and the bad guys really are. the ayatollahs of iran will know that hell will freeze over before they get a nuclear weapon. mark: foreign policy was not a particular strength last time. he took some heat in 2008.

does he have the ability to play in the foreign policy derby here? john: i don't think so. his national security credentials are relatively weak. he has traveled around the world, but there -- that is fox news rhetoric. he has not gone to the foreign policy school of government. what he's done is pick up a lot of talking points for being on fox news. will that excite some people? i'm sure it will but a one meet the bar for commander in chief. mark: it is going to be an issue in the debates. it'll be interesting to see if he can compete on those issues as much as he can on the social and economic issues. john: the only saving grace for him is so few of his competitors have foreign-policy expertise either. mark: one more on the money he

needs. mike huckabee: i will be funded and fueled not by the billionaires, but by working people across america who will find out that $15 and $25 a month contributions can take us from hope to higher ground. [applause] mike huckabee: rest assured, if you want to give $1 million please do it. but i know most of you cannot. mark: we both know the guy is not that comfortable talking about money. i thought that was one of the most awkward parts of the speech. john: he once said he felt more comfortable -- if he went into a room with rich people, he felt more kinship with the waiters than the people. that is huge. he does not like talking to ridgefield and they don't necessarily like him either --

to rich people and they don't necessarily like him either. he has talked a big game. $25 million -- we don't know where he is right now. mark: he will not get huge funders. willie have sugar daddies -- will he have sugar daddies? we don't know. today's speech has positioned himself very well. i will say because he has run before and his speaking skills he needs less than almost everybody in the second-tier. john: he knows how to work with free media. his communication skills are better than anybody in the field, but in the end, you have to have some dough. will he be able to get together enough? if they had -- there were a lot of signs he was going to be able to make the $25 billionmillion net. mark: he will not move up in

fundraising or the polls. the only way he can fight into the first year this year before the caucus -- debates and it is never moves in iowa. it will be interesting to see if he spends time on the ground. he has been below the radar. does he kcik ick it in iowa? john: i still think -- depending on how much money they have this announcement was a well staged thing compared to what he did in 2007 when he went on "meet the press." really think he is a national candidate? willie fly run -- will he fly around the country or just stay in iowa? the good still stay in that second-tier. mark: you have texans running flirty is running -- he is the southern candidate. coming up next, a boy server voice over tease you will never forget. ♪

mark: the clinton cash book is a

headache for her campaign. one of heardr advisers put out a video that you will see. john: then the british elections. mark: sayonara. ♪

pimm: hello, i am pimm fox and this is what i am taking stock of -- stocks begin the week with gains. the s&p 500 closed up 3/10 of a percent with the shares of comcast, merck and berger berkshire hathaway -- we being with the latest results from herbalife. this is after the profits topped estimates. dwayne joins us on the phone from hope arkansas. give us the details of the reports that were better than what was estimated. dwayne: