On The Huckabee show this weekend (3/10 and 3/11), host Mike Huckabee made a blatant ploy to rehabilitate Rick Santorum's image with women and to offset the heat he took for calling President Obama “a snob.” Huckabee’s first question to Santorum was about the “snob” comment and asked if there was “anything out there that you would love to walk back.” Yes, there was. Instead of calling President Obama “a snob,” Santorum wished he had used the word “snobbish.”

Santorum just happened to be there with his wife, Karen, “the woman who knows him best,” as Huckabee put it. Huckabee just happened to make a point of stressing what a strong, accomplished woman Mrs. Santorum is. She and the Mister held hands throughout the interview. And guess what? It was Karen Santorum who made Rick realize he should not have used the word “snob.” She looked on with smiling indulgence as Rick said:

“My wife, after she heard that comment, she said, ‘Rick,’ she said, ‘(Obama’s) comment might have been snobbish but that doesn’t make him a snob. (Huckabee laughed appreciatively) …If you want to say it was a snobbish comment, that’s one thing,’ but yeah, you know, you’re right, Mike. You get out there and you get wound up and you get passionate and you sometimes… say things that you wish you had said just a little bit differently and that’s certainly one of them.” 

“That’s where the wives are so effective!” Huckabee effused. He failed to note the difference without a distinction among “snob” and “snobbish” much less the fact that his own colleague, Chris Wallace, had demonstrated the week before a) that President Obama had never actually made the comment Santorum found snobbish and b) that Rick Santorum had agreed with what Obama had really said - that Americans should have access to higher education. 

Instead, we had the chance for Karen and Rick to “walk us through” their daily life of partnership. Rick is terrific sharing household responsibilities, she told us and Karen is “a key part of the campaign,” Rick said.