From the front page of the Washington Post: “In His Wife’s Campaign, Bill Clinton Is a Free Agent.” Hasn’t he always been?
Mike Huckabee’s rising poll numbers make him the exciting new face in the presidential race, much as Fred Thompson was in the spring. But let’s get serious. Huckabee was an undistinguished governor; both Romney and Giuliani had more executive accomplishments. Huckabee has a better feel for the public’s concerns over health care and wage stagnation than other Republicans; but his distinctive solutions, such as protectionism, would be terrible public policy. Some conservatives fantasize that Huckabee would expand the Republican coalition. But as Patrick Buchanan demonstrated, the blue-collar protectionist voters that populism attracts do not make up for the free-market voters it repels. Huckabee isn’t even the complete social conservative he has been made out to be: He opposes school vouchers. Huckabee is a compelling orator. Would that he had more compelling things to say.
Comments