If you think I’ve been too kind to Mike Huckabee, then boy, will you enjoy the piece I wrote for NRO today.

If you think I’ve been too tough, well… you probably won’t enjoy the piece. And in some cases… it’s your fault, as the trigger for it was one too many e-mails saying in effect, “Jim, you don’t get this because you’re not an evangelical.” If you have to be evangelical to “get” his candidacy, his campaign will go nowhere.

The key graphs:

It seems, judging by his supporters and his rhetoric, that the one message that has worked like gangbusters for Huckabee since he entered the race, has been his message to evangelical conservatives, “I’m one of you.” Judging by the polls, that community has responded enthusiastically: “Yes, you’re one of us.”
That’s a nice bond. But it’s not enough. And for those of us outside that bond, what’s the pitch to get us to mark Huckabee’s name on the box? Good jokes? The irony of seeing Hillary defeated by a guy from Hope, Arkansas? A campaign theme of “I’m one of you” only works for folks who see themselves as “you”, not as “the other guys.”