Like Like Addie, I found a number of fascinating tidbits in the forthcoming Zev Chavets profile of Mike Huckabee, among them that his thinking on foreign policy (to the extent he has done much thinking, it seems) has been influenced by Thomas Friedman and Frank Gaffney. When asked about his lack of foreign policy experience, Huckabee pointed to our current president's same lack of experience in 1999 (not a good answer, Mike!), and, in another Bush deja-vu, pledged to "surround" himself "with the best possible advice." Who might provide that advice? Duncan Hunter, who Huckabee said is "extraordinarily well-qualified" to be defense secretary. As for Regent University professor Charles Dunn's theory that envy is keeping some in the evangelical leadership from endorsing Huckabee, I can't get inside their heads, of course, but based on the people I've talked to, I really do get the sense that at least part of their reluctance is that they are very threatened by what they perceive as his willingness to forgo the long-standing evangelical/anti-tax/anti-government alliance. From their perspective, obviously, the coalition is essential for winning elections, and they worry that Huckabee could break it apart. That said, I wouldn't completely discount the envy theory. Despite his rock star showing at this year's Values Voter Summit, he really rankled the audience last year with a speech in which he proposed forming alliances between Christian conservatives and long-time adversaries such as the gay community and women's rights groups to tackle social issues like AIDS and pornography. His nice-guy act (genuine or not) didn't fly at the 2006 Values Voter Summit, and this year he replaced it with inflammatory phrases like the "holocaust of liberalized abortion." But Huckabee's deftness in other forums at playing to conservative evangelicals' theocratic impulses while not seeming like a mean-spirited freak to most everyone else could inspire jealousy, no? And surely an unemployed Huckabee would have a platform and a significant following of disappointed primary voters. But if his campaign fundraising is any guide, he would probably still be lacking the main thing that keeps the politicized evangelical leadership going: money. --Sarah Posner
