The major GOP campaign story of the weekend - indeed, one of the major stories of the GOP campaign so far - is Huckabee's rise in Iowa and nationally. It seems voters, now beginning to pay attention to the campaign, are asking themselves, "Hmm. I like this guy for vice president. So why shouldn't I like him for, you know, president?" The question now is whether Huckabee's support has a ceiling. If so, it doesn't look like he's reached it yet.
There's also news that Huckabee's chief rival in Iowa, Mitt Romney, is taking exactly the wrong lesson from the former Arkansas governor's success. From Adam Nagourney's piece in today's Times:
Mr. Romney stepped up his attacks on Mr. Huckabee over the weekend. And on Sunday, advisers to Mr. Romney, who would be the nation's first Mormon president, announced that he would give a speech on Thursday intended to address any concerns about his faith.
Mr. Huckabee's gains are powered by support he has among Christian conservatives, who have had friction with Mormons. They appear to be responding to his message that he is the true social conservative in the race despite criticism that as governor he raised taxes and was not tough enough on illegal immigrants.
The chief problem with that last sentence is the word "despite." Taxes and immigration aren't social issues. Huckabee is the true social conservative in the race, at least among the top candidates in Iowa. Which is to say, the reason voters in Iowa like Huckabee isn't because they have problems with Romney's Mormonism. It's because they like Huckabee. They like his conservative social positions on abortion, same-sex marriage, stem cells, the centrality of faith in one's life, and so on. They like his consistency on those issues. And they like that he can tell a joke.
