There is a temptation to get on Google and disect the speech for all its lies line by line like Al Franken did to Ann Coulter using Nexes in his book. But the author would be a bored as the reader.

Because winning the GOP nomination, and eventually the Presidency, is about compromise and coalition-building. And Huckabee, while benefiting from his “army” of ardent evangelical and values voters, hasn’t done anything to endear himself to the other factions of the conservative base (fiscal and national security conservatives) or even independents.

This is a view I’m not alone on, either, given this from a Christian leader quoted at the tail end of a New York Times article on Huckabee:

...some Christian conservatives say that no matter the energy at their grass roots, the animosity of their secular allies may well doom his campaign.

Richard Land, the top public policy official of the Southern Baptist Convention, argued that just as small-government and foreign-policy conservatives could not win a primary without evangelicals, “I don’t think evangelicals can win without most of the rest of those coalitions.”

Mr. Land is right. Huckabee can’t win without fiscal conservatives and independents on board, and Huck’s appeal among these factions is low. So low, that even if his “army” does manage to ram-rod him through the primaries he won’t have much of a chance of winning the general election.

What’s more, Huckabee has no business even running as a conservative. Certainly he’s conservative on social issues, but it’s worth noting that the founders of the conservative movement were concerned with limiting the power and scope of government to reasonable levels. Social issues were a cause secondary.

Huckabee, by putting social issues first and paying only lip service to the ideals of fiscal conservatism, is essentially trying to hijack a political movement that never belonged to him in the first place.

If we in the GOP want to win come November, we have to nominate a consensus candidate who appeals to all factions within the party. That’s not Giuliani with his liberal social views. It could have been Romney, except that Mitt has changed so many of his core beliefs just prior to the primary season that he comes off as insincere. McCain has abandoned the conservative base on a lot of high-profile issues like campaign finance, judicial appointments and illegal immigration and some comes off as untrustworthy as Romney. So who is left?

Fred Thompson, I think, though admittedly I’ve been a Thompson supporter since day one and am probably not very objective. I think Thompson is the “consensus candidate” capable of the broadest amount of appeal among Republicans and independents. His only knock has been that many don’t feel he’s “electable,” but as I’ve noted before if the number of people who say they would like to see Thompson win the nomination but don’t think he can would just come out and support him he’d win in a landslide.

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