Mike Huckabee Moves to Gain Position as the Anti-Bush

One of the interesting things that has occurred since the Democratic take-over of both the House and the Senate in 2006 is that despite losing the mid-terms election, Republicans have been hesitant to buck Bush. On issue after issue, the Republicans follow the lead of a guy who is polling at about a 34% approval rating. Nor is this Bush support just limited to Congessional Republicans. If you listen to the Republicans running for President, you would think that Bush is the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, the blessed saint of the modern conservative movement.

Most political writers attribute this to the fact that while Bush is unpopular with Democrats and independents, he is still relatively popular with Republicans. Fear of angering the "base" of the Republican Party leads Republicans such as Giuliani and Romney to keep praising Bubble-Boy and his diasterous administration.

Mike Huckabee, though, may be following a different path. In an recent article for Foreign Affairs, he refers to the Bush Administration as having an "arrogant bunker mentality" and criticizes Bush's decision to invade Iraq with a force that the former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said was too small.

Huckabee may have figured out that while there are many candidates trying to be like George, there isn't any candidate, with the exception of Ron Paul, who is trying to be the anti-Bush. Huckabee is in a position to fill that role because unlike candidates such as Giuliani and Romney, both of whom have problems with Christian conservatives, he has strong support among such conservatives. Having such support gives him the freedom to be more skeptical about the Bushies.

This strategy, if that is what it is, will pay off handsomely for Huckabee if he wins the Republican nomination. Putting space between himself and BB can only help him with independents and even some Democrats, who might be put off by Hillary Clinton, if she is the nominee. Hopefully, Republicans will vote against Huckabee in the primaries and make it much easier to beat them by nominating a person who will try and convince America that the last eight years was really an example of competence in goverment.