The MSM is clueless about this area, because their only questions about Conservative Christians is how many snakes they handle.
Byron at HOT AIR: Like most conservative bloggers I've been scratching my head about Huckabee's rapid rise in the polls both nationally and state by state. Going by his record and most of what he says, he's at best a squishy conservative. My take is that he's hardly a political conservative at all though he is socially conservative on some issues, so his rise makes little sense apart from his getting some lift outside the normal channels of politics. And after thinking it over for a while, I do think he may be benefiting from just such a lift. It probably won't surprise anyone to learn that that lift, if it's happening, is coming primarily from evangelical Christians. It may surprise some to learn how it's happening so quickly and why it may be all but impossible to break.
Here's what I suspect. I can't prove this, but I think Huckabee is getting enormous lift from one near-endorsement he earned that hardly anyone is talking about. It's from Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California, and it appeared on Huckabee's official website in November.
Dr. Rick Warren recently made this statement discussing Governor Huckabee on a radio program:
"I know most of the candidates running for president but I've known Mike Huckabee the longest, since we did our graduate degrees together in the late 70s. Mike's a man of vision, compassion, and integrity. I've watched his uncanny ability to identify with normal people in ways that many leaders don't. That's probably why TIME named him one of the five best governors in America. He's definitely presidential material. But honestly, what I find most appealing is his self-deprecating humor. That's a key sign of a spiritually and emotionally healthy leader - someone who is comfortable with himself, is authentic, doesn't wear a mask, and is secure enough to be humble. People love that."
Huckabee was still a second-tier candidate at the time and thus few noticed that statement's appearance. The earliest major blog mention of it that I found was on Campaign Spot on November 28.
People who don't spend much time in church or who don't pay much attention to trends in church settings probably aren't familiar with too many pastors, or at least aren't familiar with many pastors who haven't been caught bilking their followers out of millions of dollars or been caught in some other corruption, but chances are most of you have heard of Rick Warren. He's the author of the mega best seller The Purpose-Driven Life. He's also clean as a whistle on the corruption front. And he's in my opinion the single most influential Protestant pastor in America, by far, and may be the most influential pastor in the world. Pat Robertson and others get much more media attention, but Warren either controls or strongly influences tens of thousands of churches around the country through the aforementioned book and through his many church educational programs. It's difficult to overstate Warren's influence on some churches, especially the ones led by pastors who literally buy Warren's sermons (complete with Power Point slide shows) from his web site and deliver them from their local pulpits. Other pastors don't do this, but Warren remains a towering influence in their churches in one way or another. Warren is staggeringly influential, and I'm not commenting on what I think about that influence in this post, just noting how influential he is. And to the extent that he has endorsed anyone in the 2008 race, he has endorsed Mike Huckabee, as seen in that statement above. Google "mike huckabee rick warren" and you'll see thousands of references on small blogs and chat boards to that statement that appeared on the Huckabee website back in November.
I'm not saying that that Warren statement is responsible for Huckabee's rise. I am saying that the perception that Warren endorsed Huckabee has probably flown through many of the churches, most of which are Southern Baptist, that follow Warren's lead most closely. That's bound to benefit Huckabee. If I'm right about that, then Mike Huckabee is positioning himself to be the first Purpose-Drive president, and because of that he's going to be very tough to stop in the GOP primary.
Fwiw, Huckabee himself is a Southern Baptist minister who ran his church ministry on Warren's Purpose-Driven model. Warren's purpose-driven politics tend to run left on economics to favor "compassion" over government frugality, right on social issues and preserve a steadfast ignorance on foreign policy. Sound familiar?
I could be wrong on the Warren-Huckabee connection. I don't think I am, of course, but I could be. If I'm right, I just hope the evangelicals who are supporting him will take a cold, hard look at his actual record before vaulting him to the nomination.
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