He’s no Ron Paul, but look at the last week for Huckabee. He has surpassed Thompson and Mitt ....

And Rudy and McCain. See the chart.
I think his site gets something so many others miss. Its blocky and easy.

Most of the rise is probably due to the Values conference and the debate, but I bet its also due to good blog relations. His campaign site makes it easy for bloggers to join the blogroll on the right, and they are about to host a conference call for bloggers. Also, I don’t feel like I’m entering a completely controlled corporate environment—the buttons are big and jumpy and the language is relatively fresh. His site communicates something that Nicco Mele writes about in Mousepads, Shoe Leather, and Hope:

I remember early on in the campaign, in May or June, slaving over the design of something—I can’t remember what, but it was some button or header image or something …. I went to Trippi and asked him what he thought of it. He had a strong negative reaction, and told me it looked too polished—this was a grassroots campaign, and the visual representations of the campaign (especially on the web) needed to represent a certain rough intensity and avoid a corporate, polished look.
Prior to this particular design, everything I had designed for the campaign was lacking in polish—but not by choice. It was purely a function of limited time and resources, and the need to get things out of the door. So when I finally found time to design something and get it “finished” in my little design mind, it looked too boring and too institutional for the campaign that we were building.