Mike has clearly determined that he will fully embrace his role as the leading voice of Social Conservatism. He especially seems willing to take on the same-sex marriage issue without any hesitancy. Huck’s strategy seems to be that since he will inevitably be pigeon holed as a “SoCon” he might as well get whatever mileage out of it he can. I don’t say that cynically. I really think Huckabee believes these issues are critical to the future health of the nation, but he has shown some indications that he would try to keep the issue from being central to his run in 2016. No more it seems.

Here is a quote from an interview picked up by “Right Wing Watch” (a self-appointed group of radical liberals who love to call traditional conservatives extremists to marginalize them and their ideas):

“Since the president ‘came out,’ so to speak, you see court after court suddenly deciding that same-sex marriage is just fine; I’m convinced that it’s the president having given this legitimacy and sense of authority to the issue that has changed the debate,” - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/m ... hu6ro.dpuf

Huck then promised to use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to reverse this development. He does not intend to simply accept the notion that the issue is now "settled law" or that cultural change is always a leftward oneway rachet.

I agree with Huckabee on this, but I am more curious about what this stand and interviews like this over the last two weeks, and the whole culture war "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy" book tour tell us about how he is going to approach the coming campaign.

Mike may be the only one brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to take this up. Mike knows (or thinks) that there are a large number of cultural traditionalists in America outraged over not only their losses in the culture wars these past seven years, but even more flummoxed by the capitulation of their political leaders who have showed no stomach for the fight.

I really don’t know if this is brilliant or suicidal.

The extent to which folks spontaneously rallied to Duck Dynasty or Chickfila tells me there is a lot of power surging through what is now a third rail of American politics when it comes to touching gay marriage and sexual ethics as anything less than a full cake baking supporter.

But can anyone channel that energy without being destroyed in the process?

It looks increasingly like Mike is going to find out.
I really doubt anyone else on the leader board of candidates will try (maybe Carson). So he will get all of the attacks and all of the votes from those who are sympathetic. We'll see how that weighs out.

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"As for us, our days of combat are over. Our swords are rust. Our guns will thunder no more. The vultures that once wheeled over our heads must be buried with their prey. Whatever of glory must be won in the council or the closet, never again in the field. I do not repine. We have shared the incommunicable experience of war; we have felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thank you for this analysis. This very well sums up my thoughts on the subject as well.

Gov. Huckabee is not 'stupid'. He knows what he is doing and that he could - humanely speaking - get more easily elected if he delegated his social convictions to second place. There seemed to be a time after his '08 run when he tried to become "more acceptable" to the elites. That time seems long past. He seems to have reached the point of "que sera, sera". I have no doubt that he really wants the presidency, but that he has determined for himself that his love of God and country cannot trump his desire for the presidency. That he cannot sell his soul on this issue. Chapeau.

Sometimes I cringe at some of his 'stubbornness' and some of his remarks when he addresses social issues, or issues of right and wrong. I cringe, because I wonder how the media and the people will react and how it is going to play out. But then I take a deep breath, and maybe have a little more respect for him still.

Que sera, sera. But I will do my best to get him elected.

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He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. -Jim Elliot

I agree that a man who stands for what he believes in can have a powerful appeal with that silent majority again. We have a tremendous army that needs to be activated--those 70 million evangelicals, half of whom are not even registered to vote. I think Huckabee is pretty smart to know that if they can be activated and will vote, the establishment wing of the Republican Party could be history.

Gov. Huckabee has said numerous times, also, that what will save our nation is not politics but God. He really believes it, and I have tremendous respect for him as a man of conviction. Enough people secretly hate the major media bias. They hate giving more taxes to foolish government spending. But they seem to have given up all hope of changing anything through elections. Perhaps they are just waiting for someone different, who will stick out his neck and stand for what he believes in. This vast group will need to be urged out of their lethargy and get busy supporting conservative candidates of faith and principle. And they need a powerful communicator, not just for the conservative right, but for the conservative middle, too.

Huckabee may know, also, that having his ideas ridiculed by the secularists may be better than being completely ignored. It gives him a chance to be on the Sunday talk shows, where his ability to communicate brings him an instant audience.

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And apparently, Gov. Huckabee is picking up some important endorsements and funding from some who used to back Romney and McCain. That is good news, early on.

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Very true. Better have "attempted negative reporting" about you by the MSM, than no reporting at all, and enough people will disagree with the "attempted negative reporting" to give you a boost.

Remember how one media strategy during the '08 campaign was to ignore the Gov.

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He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. -Jim Elliot