Readers of my Crunchy Con blog know that I have little use for the GOP field this year, but I gotta say the more I see Mike Huckabee, the more I like and admire him. An Obama-Huckabee race in 2008 would probably be as inspiring as a Clinton-Giuliani race would be depressing. I love the way Huckabee came into the Values Voter hootenanny this past weekend and won the audience over with nothing more powerful than his oratory. Marvelous.
Over on RedState, Erick Erickson, who was at the event, points out that Huckabee showed up the leadership of the Religious Right, which really wants to settle on a candidate. Erick makes some solid points about the fracturing of the conservative coalition; I think one of the biggest stories now underway is about how the Religious Right’s traditional machers are losing their power. They can’t control the direction of the GOP nationally, and now it looks like they can’t even control their own rank-and-file.
Though I anticipate a Huckabee-Jindal ticket in 2012, let the reader understand: if Chuck Norris be for Huck, who can be agin’ him?