Will
this hurt or help Huckabee in Iowa? It does seem to rekindle the concern that his public policy positions directly flow from and are too tightly bound up with his religious views, to the exclusion of hard headed secular considerations. In the context of the DuMond case this has also come up. See
here. (“The prosecutor added that Huckabee and Arkansas evangelicals were conned by DuMond’s contention that he had been ‘saved’ — a common ruse by prisoners.’If you’re religiously converted,’ Long said, ‘how do you go out and kill two women in Missouri?'”). At times this worldview tends to lapse into Jimmy Carterism in
foreign policy.
The difficulty for Romney (after making a plea for the same constituency that Huckabee is courting and assuring voters his faith will be his guide ) is how to distinguish himself from Huckabee. How does he now argue that Huckabee should leave his religious views at the door when dealing with AIDS, terrorism, etc.? Reason 99999 not to have given The Speech. UPDATE:
Others have similar thoughts.