14 DAY TRIAL // The video that became a viral hit and had drawn almost 50 thousand viewers, by the time I watched it, is said to not be oriented as a tool against Senator Huckabee, it does not advocate for any candidate and hasn't aired so far as paid advertisement on any television network.
"It's pretty brutal, and it's a very stark reminder to those of us involved in politics of the power that YouTube has to spread a story quickly and virally", says Republican strategist Matthew Klink, of Los Angeles-based Cerell Associates. The video grew to be the seventh most watched clip in YouTube's News and Politics section.
The Missouri rape and murder victim's mother debuts the video with a graveyard tone and tells the viewers that her daughter won't be coming home for Christmas. Then, follows the story of Carol Sue Shields who was murdered by serial rapist Wayne Dumond, who was released earlier under Huckabee's orders when being Arkansas' governor. "Dear Wayne? My desire is that you be released from prison, I feel now that parole is the best way for your reintegration into society", the video quotes a letter from Mike Huckabee to Wayne Dumond, in 1996.
"If not for Mike Huckabee, Carol Sue would have been here with us this Christmas", the victim's mother ends the clip, while placing a commemoratory light golden plaque of her daughter in the Christmas tree.
A response from Huckabee was posted last week, but the problem is that the charges take 58 seconds to make and six minutes to respond to, as Republican strategist Matthew Klink points out. Such videos appear every year by the hundreds, but it is not likely for a Presidential candidate to be associated with any of them. What could still save him is his status as a Baptist minister that might dampen the fall.