I Found My Favorite Evangelical (or, why I think Mike Huckabee is very, very interesting) Posted by Shadi Hamid

I heart Huckabees. Yes, I just discovered the film a few nights ago and in some weird, probably meaningless coincidence, I just discovered Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas. I now declare Mr. Huckabee to be my favorite evangelical (which I suppose isn't saying much considering the competition). One of the recurring themes in my posts has been that politicians have to stop hiring pollsters and start having convictions and saying offbeat, quirky, impassioned, interesting, and innovative things. Yes, this is risky, but Joe Klein has spoken. Moreover, a lot of people seem to agree with him (I do). Mike Huckabee is riding the wave of authenticity and, unlike many – dare I say – Democrats, it seems relatively uncontrived. Good for him. Here's a sampler from a recent interview:

There are a lot of people in the Republican Party who think that there is this total disconnect between fiscal responsibility and social responsibility, and I've said for a long time that I've never matched it up quite like that. But these are not opponents. These are really elements that work together. I think sometimes, if anything, I get in trouble with my party because I've also spoken a lot about that we can't ignore poverty, we can't ignore the lack of health care...

And in a provocative argument that has some interesting, if potentially problematic policy implications, Huckabee points out the causal link between poverty and divorce:

Divorce is one of the key predictors of poverty for a child growing up in a home that's broken. Without making any judgments about the value or rightness or wrongness of it, it's an economic fact that when children are involved in a divorce they are more likely to end up spending part of their childhood in poverty than if they have a two-parent household.

It appears that at least one leading Republican finally figured out that Jesus cares about poor people. Thank God.

Comments

[BSR]

Shadi,
Thanks for your post about Mike Huckabee and welcome to the Huckabee team. For more about the Governor, please visit www.mikehuckabeepresident2008.blogspot.com

BSR

[Zander Van Draden]

The only problem with your Huckabee scenario, is this when the total population is broken down into groups there are only about 20% of the population who are those true, hard-right, zealous, religious wingnut's, and let's say got every last one of them, once the population at large realized just WHO HE IS, and just WHO VOTED for him, he may pick another 2 or 3%, but everyone else would turn and run. I'm not saying that's the right thing for them to do, just that it's highly likely. Out 100%, 100% being and an Iron cald sure thing, stainless steel cinch, I'd give your give under a 10% percent chance. Ain't gonna happen, sorry!