While Huckabee is a likable fella, his new found backbone doesn’t sell me.  Just a few days ago he was spouting this nonsense:

For a long time I felt Guantanamo should be kept open. And I have been to GITMO. I have seen up close and personal, having visited there, the treatment of our detainees. And even to this day, I think the detainees are being treated humanely and responsibly. But I have also come to understand that from a perspective of the way the world looks at us, GITMO has become a symbol of what a lot of people are angry about, and whatever value it has, it’s being lost by the ill-will that it has generated. So rather than continuing something that is doing us more harm than good, there’re other places to keep these detainees. I want to make clear. Closing Guantanamo is not letting these detainees loose. It’s simply putting them in a different location and not allowing this symbol, which has become a part of Guantanamo, to further damage the prestige of the United States.

and:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said at a campaign stop today that
America has to work to re-establish relationships with other countries.
Huckabee, the new
front-runner in Iowa seeking the Republican nomination for president,
said if he were to be elected president, there would be a
“real sense of cooperation.”

“I would like us to restore
relationships and rebuild the kind of positive attitudes people have
historically had toward our nation and do that by showing the kind of respect that other nations would want and
deserve,”
he said.  Huckabee did not elaborate on how he would
do that, but he noted an improving relationship with the United States
and France that occurred after the president of France, Nicolas
Sarkozy, recently came
to the United States and “showed a friendly face to us.”

“It was as if the ice melted
and there was an entirely new relationship between France and the United States, because that leader reflected the kind of
spirit we look for in an ally in and a friend.”  Huckabee also
said that nations deserve the same kind of treatment that individuals do. “You treat others the way you’d like to be
treated,” he said. “That’s to me the fundamental issue that
has to be re-established in our dealings with other countries.

You tell me who that sounds like?

It’s liberal naivete talk and it should scare the bejesus out of any Republican to hear a nominee spouting these kind of words.  I don’t want a President who has to ponder upon our worldview image before making the decisions necessary to protect this country.  If I wanted that I would vote Democrat.

Clarice Feldman puts it succinctly:

No reasonable and reasonably informed person could have missed that the persons most involved in whipping up anti-Americanism were Gerhard Schroeder, Jacques Chirac and  Jean Chrétien, all of whom were replaced by leaders far less corrupt and far more sympathetic to American positions than their predecessors.

Outside of Europe, in the Middle East, in particular, it is hard to imagine that any policy short of abject surrender to the forces of jihadism would make a dent. People who can be brought out in the streets by the thousands to protest the publication in Denmark of a Muhammad cartoon are not likely to respect or admire a country like ours, based on the best thoughts of Western civilization including free speech and freedom of religion, no matter what else we do.

These statements, to my mind, reflect that at heart Mr. Huckabee, likeable as he is, is a man too swayed by squishy sentiment and emotion to be determined wartime leader.

We all can remember another President who wanted to be liked…and that man was impeached.  He was an embarrassment to this country and I damn sure don’t want a Republican version of him.

Fred Thompson took a few swings at him, thankfully, on his way to Iowa, where he will be camped out at for the next three week:

Thompson criticized Huckabee after the former Arkansas governor seemed unaware of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran when he was asked about it earlier this week. “Not only is Iran the major long-term threat to our country, the nuclear program is the most important part of the Iran consideration. For a presidential candidate not to know that and not to keep up with that is very surprising,” Thompson said, according to a report by CBS News.

“These are the kinds of things I’ve been talking about all of my life. Now, if the American people have other priorities, if they want someone who smiles a lot more than I do, or someone who is a better quipster than I am, who has no experience in these areas, that’s for the American people to decide.”

Then tonight, I asked Thompson whether we should interpret those comments as a claim that Huckabee is not qualified to serve as commander-in-chief. Thompson reiterated his concerns about Huckabee on Iran and took a shot at Huckabee’s announcement earlier this week that he favors shutting down the prison at Guantanamo Bay. “All I’m saying is that national security and foreign affairs is the most important thing facing this country,” said Thompson. “It affects our security and the security of our children. And who has nuclear capability is the most important part of the most important issue. I think it’s best if someone has experience in that regard. I’ve spent a lot of time–I served on the Intelligence Committee in the United States Senate, I’ve traveled around and met with foreign leaders. I chaired a committee that involved oversight of nuclear proliferation issues and things of that nature. So I think it’s surprising that someone that would aspire to be president takes the position like closing Guantanamo, for example, is a good thing. And does not keep up with what’s going on in Iran.”

Huck is just a squishy sentimental Republican version of Bill I’m afraid.