This seems like the sort of attack that will do some damage to the GOP's current frontrunners:
What do you make of candidates like Giuliani, Romney and McCain—all of whom have moved to the right on social issues?
The first thing is: imitation is the most serious form of flattery. Some are having a late adult moment to come to a position I've held since I've been a teenager. Voters will have to determine if they're seeing the politics of conviction or convenience.
On the other hand, Can Huckabee really afford such lapses into tolerance as this one?
Do you believe that gays are going to hell?
No. I don't know that Baptists would make a statement that anyone goes to hell based on sexual orientation. Heaven is about one's personal faith and therefore it has to do with one's relationship to Jesus, not someone's relationship to someone else.
Or kind words about Clinton?
You have a lot in common with Bill Clinton. You both come from Hope, Ark., and went on to be governors of the state. What do you think of him and Hillary?
I have a rather different point of view on Bill Clinton [than others have]. We're dramatically different, in lifestyle etc. But I don't hate this man. Whether you liked him or not, give him credit for being a kid who came out of a dysfunctional family and an obscure town to become president. Don't take that away from him, because if you do, you take that away from every kid who grew up on the other side of the tracks. I want that kid to grow up saying, “by golly, I'm going to be president, I'm going to be a PhD, I'm going to be a nuclear physicist.
And this, frankly, surprised me:
Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?
There's one issue I want to touch on. A key element of education is music and art education. It's not expendable, extracurricular or extraneous. The future economy of America is going to be a creative economy. I am very passionate about it. Math, science and language scores improve dramatically when the student has music skills. Spatial reasoning is enhanced by music instructions. It is who we are. It defines us as a culture and a civilization. Very few people my age are still playing tackle football, but I'm still playing bass guitar in a rock-and-roll band.
Anyway, I don't have any mega-analysis here, but it's a good interview and Huckabee's clearly an interesting, eccentric candidate. One problem, though, is that he currently lacks a message. There's no theme to his answers, no broader appeal woven into his discussions of issues. We're early in the process yet, so he's got plenty of time to create one, but he's going to need to sharpen the argument for his candidacy if he's going to pierce the bubble around the Big Three.
