Rossputin.com: Rational Thinking About Our World

While it's not a secret that I, as a non-social-conservative, am not interested in having a President Huckabee, I nevertheless could not help being impressed by Governor Huckabee in a speech he gave to the Leadership Program of the Rockies' annual retreat at the beautiful Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs on Friday.

Huckabee was signed up by LPR before he made such traction in the campaign. Since LPR is a non-partisan organization (though its focus on liberty and free markets tends to make it more appealing for Republicans and libertarians than to Democrats) Huckabee did not give a campaign speech.

Instead, he spoke about history and principles, with just vague reference to specific political positions.

Speaking of what's happening in our nation, Huckabee made repeated references to our Founders, the constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. He criticized the expansion of the scope and cost of government with clarity and passion. Although I disagree with him that the "Fair Tax" is the best solution to our tax system mess, he made an impassioned case for overhauling or eliminating the income tax, and the IRS along with it.

He mentioned his support for a "Human Life Amendment" to the Constitution, which I don't support and which I find inconsistent with someone who (properly) criticizes government intrusiveness.

But the highlight of Huckabee's speech was when he described a trip to Israel during which he took his daughter to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. While taking his daughter, whom he said was 10 years old at the time, Governor Huckabee was concerned that the images might be overwhelming for her, or that she was too young to grasp significance from the memorial. At the end, there was a visitors book to sign which had space for comments. After writing her name and address, Huckabee's daughter wrote in the comment section "Why didn't somebody do something?"

Huckabee's point was clear: If we elect someone who doesn't recognize the threat to civilization posed by Islamic terrorism, a future 10-year old girl may ask the same question about the formerly great United States of America, as well as Western Europe.

He made the point as compellingly as I've heard anyone make it.

Although I've expressed some extreme opposition to Huckabee on these pages, his words on Friday gave me a much greater respect and appreciation for him. Still not enough to want him as our President, but enough to show me that the man has read and thought about more than just the Bible. Still, although this speech showed him to have more breadth than I thought, I continue to believe that his depth is too narrowly focused in religious issues.