December 08, 2007

PowerLine : Is Huckabee Too Moralistic to be President?

Paul Mirengoff delves into a similar question here:

My main objection to Huckabee -- the reason why he's my fifth choice out of five -- is that I lack confidence in his ability to fight terrorism. It's not just that he lacks experience in this realm, though that's certainly the case. The real problem is that he's too moralistic (which is not the same thing as moral). My first clue came when he said during an early debate that we need to remain in Iraq because "we broke it." Not because we need to defeat al Qaeda; not because we need to limit Iranian influence or avoid a devastating defeat at the hands of terrorists; but because we injured this formerly peaceful state. Huckabee's exaltation of moralism (in this case dubious) over policy calculation was difficult to miss...

Waterboarding and long-term detention aren't very "Christian"; they merely keep terrorists out of action and, in special circumstances enable us to find out where we're going to be attacked next and/or where we can find those who are planning the next attacks. But if Huckabee actually did reach his position based on the views of a handful of generals, and without consulting the people actually charged with protecting this country from terrorists, then he's even less qualified to be president than I suspect.

In all of this, I always come back to the fact that we're preparing to hire the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. Where the rubber meets the road and push comes to shove, the Commander-in-Chief is called upon to serve, quite frankly, as Chief Bringer of Death to America's Enemies. As I've learned more about Mike Huckabee, I've become increasingly convinced that this man, like Jhimmi Carter and B.J. Clinton before him, just doesn't appear to have the stomach for the less polite aspects of this particular job.

By Ragnar Danneskjold, Typical Bitter Gun-Clinger at 08:08 PM | |