Below The Beltway

It looks like Mike Huckabee is engaged in a not-too-subtle effort to make sure his chief rival for leadership of a post-McCain GOP is not on the ticket this year:
For the second consecutive day, Mike Huckabee made public statements suggesting John McCain ought not pick Mitt Romney as his running mate.
“I think there are better [...]

There’s isn’t much that Mike Huckabee stands for that I agree with, but he’s right when he says that a campaign based on demonizing Barack Obama isn’t going to work:
Former US presidential contender Mike Huckabee urged his fellow Republicans on Wednesday not to denigrate Democrat Barack Obama, saying they should celebrate the historic moment of [...]

At The Next Right, Jon Henke divides the Republican coalition in to three basic factions:
Progressive Republicans (aka: Teddy Roosevelt Republicans) - These are the Republicans who may be solid allies on many issues, but who also seem to want a Great Leader who can do Big Things. They are Crusader Conservatives - generally reliable on [...]

The Libertarian Party’s candidate for President responds to Mike Huckabee’s fear of libertarians:
In a widely quoted online interview posted yesterday on the Huffington Post, former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR), a former Republican presidential primary contender, blamed the recent Republican losses in special elections on what he termed a “new brand of libertarianism, which is social [...]

This is actually a pretty good response:
FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY:
Huckabee is right: Libertarianism is a threat to Republican hypocrisy
Party responds to former GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee’s comments about the “threat” of libertarianism
Washington, D.C. – In a recent interview with Huffington Post contributor Will Mari, former GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee called libertarianism “not [...]

His version of how to fix the Republican Party apparently involves the GOP becoming the party of authoritarian, socialist, theocons:
What can the party do to reverse course?
Republicans need to be Republicans. The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but [...]

Not surprisingly, Mike Huckabee’s stupid joke about Barack Obama being shot at is all over the news this morning:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, was known for his sense of humor on the presidential campaign trail, but on Friday he startled listeners with his latest improvisation, an imagined gun pointed at Senator [...]

Man, I never though a minister would go there:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.
Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: [...]

Consider this from Robert Novak’s latest column:
An element of the Christian community is not reconciled to McCain’s candidacy but instead regards the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a Biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as “God’s candidate” running for president in 2012.
(…)
[C]redible [...]

The latest ABC News/WaPo Poll has an interesting section on public opinion on the respective parties’ Vice-Presidential nominees.
First, the Democrats:

And, the Republicans:

So, basically, what we have are entirely meaningless results for two reasons.
First, it’s fairly obvious that most of the responses are based on name recognition. People know who Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, [...]