Huckabee's win in Iowa has forced the Mainstream Media to come up with a new storyline to describe his success. This storyline, already being discussed on DKos, by Arianna, and even by Fineman, will do two things:
1 - Solidfy support for Huckabee from the Evangelical base;
2 - Guarantee a Democratic Win in November.
As we all know, the GOP has harnessed the people power of the Evangelicals to propel themselves to victory for the last 20 years. Kos wrote a terrific diary here.
He summarizes...
He's a theocon, the very people who empowered the corporate cons and neocons the past two decades by their tireless on-the-ground activism while the others kept their fingernails clean in their Wall Street and think tank corner offices. Now that the theocons are threatening to take ther turn at the helm of the GOP, it's amusing how the rest of the -cons in the GOP are suddenly less than thrilled and willing to play ball.
This thinking (backed up by Arianna) is confirmed by the Vigurie Email kos posted yesterday:
"Much has been made of Mike Huckabee's strong stance on social issues. In the 1970s, we conservatives had two legs on our stool—economic responsibility and a strong national defense—but that wasn't enough to win many elections. It wasn't until we added the third leg to our stool—social issues—that conservatives were able to win elections consistently.
"Now Huckabee wants to go back to a two-legged stool—social issues and defense. He would saw off the economic leg. That's a recipe for disaster for the Republican Party. Economic and traditional conservatives would stay home in droves, turning the country over to the Democrats.
Howard Fineman called it the "Revenge of the Evangelicals".
The concept of "What Would Jesus Do" has been projected into the forefront of the collective Christian mindset by an eloquent preacher candidate and the rise of the Health Care Crisis. The Evangelicals are, for the first time, voting for one of their own, rather than a neocon offering the lip service necessary to energize the churches.
This line of thinking is gift wrapped for the MSM, just waiting for another strong Huckabee showing to unveil it. And, in the same way that Conservatives guaranteed the success of Michael Moore movies like Fahrenheit and Sicko by publicly protesting against it, Conservatives like Vigurie protesting against the REAL "compassionate conservativism" of Huckabee will only help to open the eyes of the Christian base.
In the next weeks, look to the MSM to trot out this angle on Huckabee, and, in response, for the Christian Conservatives to come out for Huckabee in droves as a way of fighting against the GOP machinery that has, for years, harnessed the Evangelicals like oxen to deliver their candidate to the White House.
Why does this mean success for the Dems in November?
Because while Huckabee has a very good chance of being propelled to the nomination by the soon to be angered Evangelicals, no one is going to seriously vet his already damaged foreign policy credentials. In the last two months, Huckabee has already offered up softballs to opponents on foreign policy - NIE and Pakistan.
At the same time, Huckabee looks like a Dem on MANY social issues. When there is not much to distinguish the two nominees on social issues, the discussion will turn keeping the nation safe.
Each of the top three size up better than Huckabee on foreign policy. This allows the Dem nominee to seize foreign policy ground, and will deliver the White House to the Dems in '08.