Huckabee? No.

Stephen Bainbridge makes the case against Mike Huckabee. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

If Huckabee wins the nomination -- and he's now not only leading in Iowa, but surging nationwide -- then, well, remember all that stuff I said about Giuliani winning? Yeah, pretty much the opposite of that.

UPDATE: Another reason to be anti-Huckabee: he is opposed to the Law of Conservation of Energy. Luckily, I don't think any president or Congress, nor even liberal activist judges, can invalidate that law...

(Hat tip, again: InstaPundit, who quotes a commenter on the linked post saying, "In this election we obey the laws of thermodynamics!")

Comments

[DW]

I have two words about leading prior ro the primaries:

Howard Dean.

[Aaron]

Doesn't really matter what I think, since I won't be voting for the GOP nominee in any case. But, Andrew and Joe Mama... the idea of Huck as President is a horror, right? Tell me we have this much in common... ;)

[Joe Loy]

(Disclaimer: notwithstanding certain Sardonic figures-of-speech deployed hereinbelow, I do Respect all religious Creeds. / Well. MOST religious creeds. The Thuggee and the Satanists, I'm not too Sure about. :)

For some time I'd been wondering when the Light would Dawn on the rank-and-file Christian Soldiers, to wit, that notwithstanding their Magisterium's ;> entrancement with the reprogrammably-robotic Governor Moroni, the Huckster is unmistakeably Their Man. / Lo, the Tongues of Fire have at length descended & The Word hath finally gone Forth. :}

Huckabee IS Nominatible y'know. IF he can hold off Romney's furious conterattack in Iowa, then nab South Carolina, raise some Real money from the Faithful, and Make It to Feb. 5 with its Dixie and Heartland components ~ ohhh, it's gonna be Fierce.

And before we Dems start to salivate at the delicious prospect, let us Review the distribution of Electoral Votes & then let us Pray: O Lord, teach us to be ever Careful what we Wish for. Amen. :|

[Joe Mama]

Aaron,

I wouldn't go so far as to say "horror", but I agree that Huckabee would not be a good president.

Like you, I won't be voting for the opposition's nominee in any case. But if the Dems nominate Obama and the Reps nominate Huckabee, I would have to think pretty hard about whether I could hold my nose long enough to vote for Huckabee.

[Andrew]

Aaron, I can honestly say that if Huckabee is the nominee, I will very seriously consider not voting in the next presidential election (no way I'd ever vote for HRC or Obama -- and I'm not even considering Edwards a viable primary candidate). The sole thing I can think of in Huckabee's favor is that he's extremely likely to appoint fairly conservative judges. Still, I [no] heart Huckabee, for sure.

[Joe Loy]

Per what I gleaned from my beloved ;} Cable Newsies today it seems that Mayor Bloomberg, despite his previous Pooh-poohing, is currently Recontemplating an independent candidacy ~ reportedly in the Light of the miraculous Advent of the good Governor Huck ;]. Accordingly, I posit that in the still-Unlikely event that the Huckabee Surge continues & Cumulates to the point of Mike's post-Feb. 5 emergence as the Nominee Presumptive, Bloomie will draft a chump-change Check (say, $50 Mil as Seed money :) for the 51-state Petition operation, and Go for it. [One mentionee for runningmate is: Chuck Hagel. :]

So then the Question becomes: Joe Mama and Andrew, in such a stinkpot scenario could you ~ and the many millions of your IntelligentConservative Ilk :} ~ staunchly Clamp up your nostrils long enough to cast a dubious Ballot not (as you'd perhaps hoped) for America's Mayor, but for ~ Manhattan's? :)

[Footnote: of course given the Huckster's notoriously unpatriotic Compassion for the Children of Illegal Aliens (and possibly also for the rapacious Red Chinese :) , his prospective Nomination could also detonate the oft-subtly-Threatened independent candidacy of Voldemort the CNN Demagogue Commentator Who Must Not Be Named. / By golly, this really Will be a very interesting election year. :]

[Joe Mama]

Joe,

Whether I would cast my vote for an independent Bloomberg instead of a Republican Huckabee would depend on who the Democrat nominee is. If the Democrat was someone I could live with as president without de-evolving into the conservative equivalent of a sputtering, knee-jerk BDSer, then I would at least be open to voting for Bloomberg . . . depending of course on his views on foreign policy, tax policy, judges, how to combat terrorism, and the overall character of the man (all of which I know little). Obama is the only Democrat who falls into this category, because as naive and wrong-headed as his policies are or would likely be as president, he seems like a generally good and decent person.* Not so with the other first tier Dems: Hillary is far too devious, duplicitous and calculating (I know, all pols are, but she's in a league of her own), and Edwards is a populist snake-oil salesman.

In other words, assuming Bloomberg had far less of a chance of winning than either Huckabee or the Dem nominee, I would only consider casting a "principle" vote for him as a third party candidate if Obama were the Dem nominee. Otherwise, I see a vote for Bloomberg (or any other third party candidate) as a wasted vote because it's note a vote cast for one of the two candidates who will win.

* I would also be tempted to "do the right thing" and vote for Obama because he is black. This a subject worthy of a whole other thread, but . . . while I might disagree mightily with Obama's policy views, the election of a black president would go a very, very long way IMO toward helping the black community as a whole rise up out of the grievance-induced funk it has been in since the MLK era thanks to despicable hucksters like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, etc. who are blacks' own worst enemy. Our country has a heavy history with the back community, and while I'm not one to use that history as an excuse for all the awful statistics out there among the black community today, it is something that has and continues to have a ripple effect through time. In lieu of making "amends" by something as silly as reparations, I believe that electing a black president would do the trick nicely. Put differently, if a President Obama meant no more grievance-mongers like Sharpton and Jackson or their ilk, then he would be tough for me to vote against.

[Joe Loy]

A thoughtful presentation, Joe Mama. Thanks.

[Andrew]

Joe, why would I be tempted by Bloomberg? For both Huckabee and Bloomberg, their respective fiscal, tax, economic, trade, immigration, and foreign policies are equally unknown or unpalatable to me. At least I could rely on Huckabee to appoint conservative judges.

I disagree with Joe Mama on the black president thing. Whether he is Mormon, Jewish, or black (or whether the candidate is a she) should not and does not enter the equation for me (unless he used to be a she -- then I'd have problems).

Interesting note on race in America: a recent poll finds divisions among Asians, blacks, and Hispanics are more pronounced than is the distrust among any of those groups and the white man. So, I must ask, what can post-colonial theory do for you?

[Andrew]

After looking at the slideshow of the results, only one thing really nags me: What the heck is up with the Koreans?

[Joe Loy]

Thanks, Andrew. Principled, as always. / Well ~ "...(unless he used to be a she -- then I'd have problems)." Bigot :). Heeheehee... ;>

"...a recent poll finds divisions among Asians, blacks, and Hispanics are more pronounced than is the distrust among any of those groups and the white man." Hm! Interesting indeed.

" So, I must ask, what can post-colonial theory do for you?"

So I must Answer:

Well, now Irish men forget the past
And think of the day that's coming fast,
When we shall all be civilized,
Neat and clean, and well advised -
Oh, won't mother England be surprised?

Whack fol the diddle o the die do day
So we say "hip hooray!"
God bless England so we pray,
Whack fol the diddle o the die do day.

:)