A McCain-Huckabee Ticket? The Right Reacts

I got loads of responses (including over 300 comments) to my post yesterday about Mike Huckabee possibly topping John McCain's short list for vice president. (Let me add that I think McCain's climate-change speech makes such a combo more likely. Huckabee sings from the same songbook when it comes to global warming. But so do Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty and Florida's Charlie Crist.) First, here is a bit from the blogosphere:

The Club for Growth blog (Nachama Soloveichik): "Ugh...It was not just economic conservatives who had problems with Huckabee, but across the board conservatives who thought Huckabee looked more like a social conservative Democrat than anything else."

The Corner (Kathryn Jean Lopez): "I'm not saying it wouldn't be a winner, but it would be bad."

Daniel Drezner's blog: "Please tell me this is a very late April Fool's joke.... I've been cautiously optimistic that John McCain would choose a Ron Paul-type Republican (minus the conspiratorial bigotry) since the Huckabee wing of the party is much less likely to vote for Obama."

Most of the E-mails I got were pro-Huckabee. This one from Jackie Britton of Birmingham, Ala., was typical:

I am a social conservative and independent and I would welcome a McCain/Huckabee ticket. Huckabee is likable, articulate, and raising taxes by a 90% vote of the Arkansas residents to improve education and roads was a GOOD thing—just like Reagan did in California! He not only balanced the Arkansas budget but left office with a huge budget surplus while cutting taxes in Arkansas 95 times, including the capital gains tax. Huckabee has the executive experience of running a state and balancing its budget for 10 years. His youth would be a good counter-balance to Obama as well as his gift of rhetoric and oratory. Huckabee can give McCain the South where Obama is strong and relate to the common man. McCain can't go wrong with Huckabee!