Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Huckabee

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is all the rage among evangelicals these days. With about a month to go before Iowa and New Hampshire, he is not only the favorite of the Religious Right, but also of Iowa voters. Recent polls have shown a strong sure in support for him, making official his graduation from a second-tier to first-tier candidate.

But with his graduation has come much closer scrutiny. Holiday Inn Express anyone? I know Bush was continually ridiculed for a lack of foreign policy experience during his run for the White House in 2000 and it seems this is just a repeat, but with our nation in the middle of a war, I don't think we can afford to hope that he'll learn fast.

My personal take on Mr. Huckabee is that he is a fine social conservative, but he lacks few, if any, fiscal conservative credentials. It doesn't help much that the Drudge Report has had at least one negative Huckabee piece up every day. True, it's possible that Drudge is biased toward Romney, but when you have this many stories up, you have to wonder. Fiscal Conservatives are crucial and the idea of them grudgingly, if at all, coming to the voting booth in the general election is not a good prospect against Hillary or Obama.

Something that I suppose should appeal to me is that he is a Southern Baptist Pastor. But from observing him I've noticed that his faith is causing him to make a bad policy decision: income equality. Multiple statements he's made have indicated that he is a big government conservative and his domestic economic policies remind me of John Edwards, except with less hair. He believes we should all pitch in to help the poor...I thought welfare already did that? The argument here from Huck supporters is that "Bush was a Big Government Conservative, why not get another one in?" Because we're SICK of it. We don't have to settle for another B.G.C. when the field is wide open with other options.

Mike Huckabee is a swell guy I'm sure, just keep him in the pulpit and out of the White House .

Fred Thompson save us all.

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