Underestimating Huck

"I also cheer any candidate that has the guts and grit to go up against the liberal machine in this country." - Sassy Granny

Perhaps this is the litmus test for GOP voters. If you see Huckabee as a possible conservative redoubt against a Democratic, "liberal machine" surge, you're really searching for a way to marginalize Huckabee (and his supporters) while the Republican Establishmentarians regain control of thier church. If nothing else, Huckabee's "populism" is heresy to conventional Republican economic orthodoxy. The San Andreas Fault line in the Republican Party is where free market economics rubs up against the Social Gospel tendencies of Evangelical Christianity.

Love the exchange of ideas here. Obviously opinion (my own included) runs the gamet, but I appreciate their free expression here. As I've said before, my mind is not yet made up. That said, I reiterate my great admiration for anyone who'll stand against liberal biases - a subject that will (and obviously does) engender no little debate here. I'm thinking they would, like me, say: "Bring it on!".

"What they heard was a bright, articulate former governor who struck them as decent, engaged and disarmingly appealing."

I'd never vote for him, but as a godless secularist, I can say that Huckabee doesn't instantly make my skin crawl or trigger my gag-reflex as so many right-wing/fundamentalist types do. Even if he were to become President, I could deal with it without getting too upset.

But Noonan, who is normally astute, misses a key point that David Brooks gets instinctively -- Huck isn't a monastic outsider from pop culture, he is avowedly and even proudly part of it.

Does Huck want to change our culture? Absolutely, and in serious ways that no doubt authentic religious conservatives would support. But he seems to want to do it (and boy, would Huck hate this word ...) by evolution, not revolution.

Rod -

Do you think the liberal DMN editorial board may have endorsed Huck precisely because they think he'll be the easiest to destroy in the general election?

Rod, I have to wonder whether McCain will do as well in NH as people think he may. I'm probably just projecting my own dislike of the man, but he seems very out of touch with younger voters and their concerns; it's hard to see anything innovative or challenging about his ideas.

If elected, he would be 72 when he takes office, older than Reagan was. I just don't see him offering enough to voters, frankly. But a lot may depend on the demographics on the ground in NH.