Criticism Helps Huckabee
Update: $10,000 In Donations Seems To Have Bought Clemency For Repeat Drunken Driver

Here's a story that helps explain why, as we learn more about Huckabee's record, he continues to rise in the polls. The story is about his lack of a formal theology degree, but at the end is this:

I can tell you this. All these stories attacking Huckabee may hurt him in New Hampshire and in other states across the country. But in Iowa, among evangelicals, it's a different mind set. These stories can actually have the reverse effect with Evangelicals saying ,"stay strong Mike. Everybody is coming against you because you wear your faith on your sleeve."

This is usually the mentality when "one of their own" is attacked. Unless he's done something so reprehensible it's going to take something pretty big to stop Huckabee's momentum in Iowa with Evangelical Christians.

Still, the article makes it clear what might be driving Huckabee's support among some evangelicals, and why it continues to rise no matter how liberal the former Arkansas governor is shown to be. His faith seems to cover a multitude of bad policy decisions or an increasingly shady record, and that's a shame.

I have heard this described as pushback, or blowback by some evangelical voters angry at being told to vote for Rudy Giuliani. I was one of those who appealed to party unity when Giuliani was the front-runner, and in that same spirit of unity I ask evangelical voters to reconsider their support for Huckabee, a candidate who is just as, if not more, divisive than the former New York mayor. And to answer the question, yes. I am an anti-Huckabee evangelical but if Huckabee is the nominee then I will hold my nose and vote for him. Then I will go enjoy a glass of wine while watching the electoral map go true blue.

I understand that in the wake of the Giuliani wave, evangelicals want to send a message that they still matter. To those who support Huckabee in that spirit I simply say that sending a message is productive, but angering the party of which you make up less than a full majority is not. Yes, they need you to win. But you need them just as much.

Keep that in mind before you check the box next to Huckabee's name.

$10,000 Buys A Huckabee Clemency For A "Rehabilitated" Drunk Driver Who Would Re-Offend Soon After Leaving Prison [Ace]: I think this clemency has rather less to do with Christ than it does with Mammon.

posted by Slublog at 06:01 PM

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