I asked Joe Carter, Mike Huckabee’s director of research, for any thoughts on or reaction to Charles Krauthammer’s column from this morning, which slams his man pretty hard.

He responded:

Charles Krauthammer is an incredibily smart guy but, as sometimes happens with intellectuals, he’s overtthinking the issues. For example, he points out that Governor Huckabee’s ad uses the term “Christian leader.” Krauthammer claims that this implies that this is “some special qualification for the presidency.” The truth is much more banal: he’s simply citing his resume. Prior to his political career, Huckabee was pastor of several Southern Baptist churches and served as president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. The ad was simply an introduction to who he is, not a claim about how being a religious leader makes him well qualified.

Carter is earning every penny Huckabee’s paying him, but something in this explanation leaves me with a furrowed brow. When Huckabee made his statement about his rise in the polls, “There’s only one explanation for it, and it’s not a human one. It’s the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people,” we were told no, no, no, we were completely misunderstanding if we thought he was saying God was propelling his rise in the polls, and Huckabee just wanted to give “God the credit for the blessings—particuarly the unexplainable good fortune—that come our way.”

Now that he’s got the words “Christian Leader” in an ad, and some folks see an implicit slam at Romney, and again, no, no, no, we’re misinterpreting Huckabee’s words and actions. Just him touting his resume.

Maybe. But as we’ve seen in the debates, Huckabee’s a really good communicator. Odd that his words would be so easy to misinterpret in this area.