I am beginning to wonder if Mike Huckabee is the Republican Barack Obama. Obama’s appeal is based, in no small part, on his optimism, on the sense of hope that he offers. He doesn’t come across as a jaded pol. He is real world. Mike Huckabee is doing the same thing. Where the other Republican candidates seem tired and seem not to wear well at all, Huckabee is the opposite. The more people see of him, it seems, the more they like him. And what he is offering to Republican primary voters is something they want – he is offering them the chance to “believe”:All that being said, I really dislike the ad. This attempt to sell his religious faith as a political virtue cheapens his faith and cheapens politics. I understand the politics behind it – the religious right has no candidate. Huckabee is a former Baptist preacher. Giuliani’s greatest weakness with social conservatives is his lack of social conservatism. Romeny’s greatest weakness is his Mormon faith. This ad takes straight aim at both. I still don’t like it. You can do better than this Mike.