Huckabee: The New Compassionate Conservative?

Is Mike Huckabee's campaign for president turning into him into the new
"compassionate conservative?"


President Bush ran on that theme successfully back in 2000. But the more Huckabee speaks, the more he seems to be molding his candidacy into a balance between strict conservative principals and a larger theme of uniting on issues for the larger good.

He speaks about leading the country not from the left or the right, and "not horizontally but vertically."

Huckabee appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews Monday, and attempted to broaden his appeal beyond the Christian conservative base of the Republican party.

He didn't speak about winning the culture war, but rather respecting his liberal opponents. He said his pro-life convictions don't push him to want to put doctors behind bars, but rather "protecting somebody."

He seemed to evade questions about his views on evolution, deeming them irrelevant in the campaign for the Presidency. "And here we are in the middle of a presidential campaign, and, Chris, I doubt there is an American family in America tonight sitting at the dinner table having a discussion on what the president, the next president, is going to believe about evolution," Huckabee said, after going back and forth with Matthews.

Huckabee also made comments like "a true conservative is a conservationist," and advocated a "consumption tax" to deal with global warming.

What should be the issues Republicans and Democrats try to tackle? The issues they have a higher chance of coming to an agreement on, Huckabee argued. Not gay marriage or abortion. But education, for instance.

"Why are kids laying their heads on the desk and sleeping, in the most expensive nap in America? We need to be talking about fixing that, so we don`t have a whole generation of uneducated kids. And I`m going to tell you, Chris, Democrats and Republicans ought to be coming together and agreeing on doing that," Huckabee said.

Is any of this working? The best recent news for Huckabee came from New Hampshire, where a Mason-Dixon poll showed the former Arkansas Governor running at about 5%. That still puts him in fifth place. And an internal poll by Mitt Romney's campaign showed Huckabee at 7% in Iowa.

Huckabee seems to have won the Sam Brownback primary -- and has emerged as the top 2nd tier candidate. The problem is that another "top tier" candidate (Fred Thompson) is about to nudge him out of the spotlight.

Meanwhile, Huckabee is now weighing whether to roll the dice and compete in Iowa's August straw poll. He initially said he would, but now is reconsidering. It's a gamble. If he goes for it and doesn't win it or come close to Romney (without John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in it), it will look bad. On the other hand, if he opts out, he could be missing a chance to do well and ride a bunch of free media momentum. He's still hedging on the straw poll in Ames.

But Huckabee won't budge on his principals. Support the surge in Iraq. Abortion is wrong. Marriage is between one man and one woman.

When asked about if he would run with Rudy Giuliani, he dodged -- and said he could convert Rudy on issues.

It was vintage Huckabee. Deflecting a complicated question with humor. And showing his candidacy is a little bit more complicated than the pure "conservative" label that's being used to describe it.