As Phil Klein notes, Mike Huckabee has managed to position himself to the left of Hillary Clinton on the issue of a national smoking ban.

KABOOM! Hear that? That was his momentum slamming into the anti-nanny-state instincts of GOP primary voters.

UPDATE: One or two readers write in to say they agree with Huckabee. Here’s the deal – I don’t like smoking. I don’t myself. I ask for the non-smoking sections in places where it’s available, which is just about everywhere. I don’t have much of a problem with local governments mandating the creation of non-smoking sections. I know second-hand smoke is bad, that’s why I avoid it. I think it ought to be up to businesses to decide whether it’s permitted in their offices or other work environments.

But it’s not a federal issue, and a one-size-fits-all national law is statism run amok. Plus, there’s something unseemly about the way smoking has become this convenient punching bag of a public health enemy in a society that otherwise is growing ever-more-tolerant on other substances. Perhaps this was best illustrated in that Saturday Night Live sketch depicting Pelosi telling an aide that “this is a non-smoking office” and the aide responding, to her approval, “it’s a marijuana cigarette.”

Second-hand marijuana smoke – now there’s a knock-down drag-out public health fight waiting to happen…