Dan is a writer living in Shanghai, China.
January 7 08
I don't heart Huckabee
One of the benefits of living in China is that you can filter the news you hear and read from America. You can avoid being bombarded by the media onslaught. On my infrequent trips back to the US, however, I enjoy the onslaught, because I know it is only temporary. And during my recent two-week stay in Florida and Pennsylvania, I got up to speed on the presidential campaign ... and I learned that the prospect of a Mike Huckabee presidency (something I hadn't thought about until his win in Iowa) scares the hell out of me. He recently was one of three candidates to admit to not believing in evolution at a Republican debate (see here) and apparently thinks the notion that the Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago is just as plausible as Darwin's theory (see here). Perhaps Iowa was just a blip (Huck is in fourth place in recent New Hampshire polls) but what is the rest of the world going to think if the would-be "preacher president" becomes a legitimate contender? I mean, even George Will thinks he's crazy:
Huckabee says "only one explanation" fits his Iowa success "and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people." God so loves Huckabee's politics that He worked a Midwest miracle on his behalf? Should someone so delusional control nuclear weapons?