This May Explain Why I Can't Warm to Huckabee

I like Mike Huckabee - he seems like a nice man. BUT when I think about him in terms of President of the United States, I get one of those "um -no" feelings. I've discussed this with my buddy Dee over at Chatterbox Chronicles and she feels the same way. Nothing that I could really put my finger on but just one of those gut feelings that I have learned to trust over the years.

After reading John Fund's article over at the WSJ I know that, once again, that my gut feeling is right on the money...

Mr. Huckabee, on the other hand, is running hard right on social issues but liberal-populist on some economic issues. This may help explain why the affable, golden-tongued Baptist minister was the clear favorite at the pro-life Family Research Council's national forum last Saturday. And why Mr. Huckabee's praises have been sung by liberal columnists such as Gail Collins of the New York Times and Jonathan Alter of Newsweek.

Holy Cow - Jonathan Alter? Excuse me while I run away screaming....

Former GOP state Rep. Randy Minton is not impressed. In 1999, he was urged by the governor to back a gas-tax increase. "I'd taken a pledge against higher taxes, but he sniffed that my constituents didn't understand what we have to do in state government to make it work," Mr. Minton says. "His support for taxes split the Republican Party, and damaged our name brand." The Club for Growth notes that only a handful of the 33 current GOP state legislators back their former governor.

(snip)

Mr. Huckabee's reluctance to surround himself with conservatives was evident as governor, when he kept many agency heads appointed by Bill Clinton. Zac Wright, a spokesman for incoming Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, was asked this year why 15 Huckabee agency heads had been retained. Most of them were "Clinton people," he replied, not "Huckabee people." Mr. Huckabee told me many of his agency heads had "apolitical" responsibilities.

This is a toss up issue because President Bush did a similar thing when he took office and we know how that turned out...

Phyllis Schlafly is no fan of Huckabee but I'm not a big fan of Schlafly.

But this is probably the most telling...

Mr. Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush's veto of the Democrats' bill to vastly expand the Schip health-care program. Only he and John McCain have endorsed the discredited cap-and-trade system to limit global-warming emissions that has proved a fiasco in Europe.

Supporting the Democratic expansion of SCHIP is the proverbial nail in the coffin for my support of Huckabee. I think that says a great deal about where Huckabee truly stands on universal state run health care and increasing taxes. THAT is something that I cannot and will not support.

Still have a big field to choose from and I'm still mulling it over...