TPM wants to know what’s up with Huck’s use of the word “vertical”.
Can anyone explain what the hell that means? Vertical? I guess if you’re main opponent was Fred Thompson you might push the fact that you spend most of your time standing up. But seriously, is there something I’m missing here? Or is this the weirdest campaign I’ve ever heard?
Is it religious?
Later Update: A few other readers suggest there’s some crypto-evangelical code wording going on with it too. And it seems like they’re definitely on to something here. Here’s one example, another and another.
The more I look at this I don’t think there’s any question this is a clever dog whistle call out to Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals that his politics are God’s politics.
Well, I’m sitting here in my office with two other evangelicals and we are racking our evangelicals brains and consulting our evangelical dictionary and playing our Amy Grant music backwards and we have no idea how “vertical” could be a call out to evangelicals.
Vertical? Huh?
Heaven is a shout out. Faith is good. Rapture works. City on a hill. Get saved. Born again. But vertical?
Nope.
It really is Huckabee trying to define a new way of talking about politics.