Republican candidate Mike
Huckabee’s special Christmas campaign message is a brilliant attempt at
reminding voters which candidate would make the best Pastor-in-Chief. But is it
likely to make him Commander-in-Chief?
As a life long devoted
Christian conservative myself, I’m hardly offended by Huckabee’s recent
Christian campaign ad, other than it is an obvious attempt to use the Birth of
Christ in a commercial effort to win over voters, which I do find
troublesome.
But in a country which is
wrongly convinced that some unwritten separation of church and state exists in
our Constitution, how will this campaign ploy play out with voters at large? I
suspect not well…
The ploy is getting lots of
press. But is it going to be positive press at the end of the saga? Such a ploy
might indeed work in Iowa, but what about the rest of the country?
Huckabee is definitely
resonating with social conservatives in the heartland. Republicans who think
social conservatives are going to line up behind any of the socially liberal
Republicans had better be paying close attention to what is driving the recent
surge in the Huckabee campaign. It’s the unapologetic moral backbone,
stupid!
However, when even Christian
conservative voters begin to realize that Huckabee’s current popularity is
limited only to his laid back preachy style of reminding Americans about our
founding moral heritage, and translates into a willingness to use the power of
the federal government to legislate Christian doctrines, his current popularity
may fade, even among Christians.
Huckabee clearly thinks he
has hit on the moral conscience nerve and is planning on riding that train all
the way to the Republican convention. Yet he runs a great risk of being not only
seen as one-dimensional, but also confused with someone running for pastor of
the local church, instead of President of the United States.
While most Christians would
indeed love to see our nation move towards more traditional family values and
fundamental American principles, I’m not sure they want their local Pastor in
the White House using tax-payer funds to legislate morality from on high in
Washington DC. This seems to be Huckabee’s primary message…
Yes, the Huckabee Christmas
campaign ad is a clever ploy.
But he might have just
out-clevered himself at the worst possible time in his campaign.
Is he running for
Commander-in-Chief or Pastor-in-Chief?
