I could not agree more with these words from John Mark Reynolds:

“Mike Huckabee will be a major player in the future of the Party, especially if John McCain does not win the fall election. In any case, he should write some serious books, form a think tank to engage young conservatives, and press for a Party that does not leave its base behind……
Mike Huckabee has earned the trust of a plurality of Republican Evangelical voters. He can use that trust to broaden the outlook of his voters and so do well for himself by doing good for them.”

Read the whole thing. The key to Huckabee’s political future is mending fences with sectors of the Republican party which were alienated by his campaign. Though the reminder to consider the poor is needed in Republican circles, his occasional “anti-wealthy” language did not enhance his image (fair or unfair) as one who had questionable credentials as a fiscal conservative. It made him look bitter and petty, and it fit in to the “thin-skinned” stereotype. Lastly, he needs to move his religious base into a conservatism with broader appeal (over at Huckabee’s blog tonight, most commenters are talking about a third party run). Huckabee cannot merely be the “Christian candidate” and win.
Note: I say all this as an evangelical Christian who voted for Huckabee.

Former Senator Rick Santorum pens a must-read op-ed piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Barack Obama’s opposition to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. Excerpt:

During the partial-birth abortion debate, Congress heard testimony about babies that had survived attempted late-term abortions. Nurses testified that these preterm living, breathing babies were being thrown into medical waste bins to die or being “terminated” outside the womb. With the baby now completely separated from the mother, it was impossible to argue that the health or life of the mother was in jeopardy by giving her baby appropriate medical treatment.
The act simply prohibited the killing of a baby born alive. To address the concerns of pro-choice lawmakers, the bill included language that said nothing “shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand or contract any legal status or legal right” of the baby. In other words, the bill wasn’t intruding on Roe v. Wade.
Who would oppose a bill that said you couldn’t kill a baby who was born? Not Kennedy, Boxer or Hillary Rodham Clinton. Not even the hard-core National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). Obama, however, is another story. The year after the Born Alive Infants Protection Act became federal law in 2002, identical language was considered in a committee of the Illinois Senate. It was defeated with the committee’s chairman, Obama, leading the opposition.
Let’s be clear about what Obama did, once in 2003 and twice before that. He effectively voted for infanticide. He voted to allow doctors to deny medically appropriate treatment or, worse yet, actively kill a completely delivered living baby.

Read the whole thing.
(HT: Justin Taylor)