If current trends continue Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, will win in Iowa and make himself a legitimate contendor for the GOP nomination. This would be a bad develpoment for the party. Huckabee, for all his surging in the polls, is not the man the GOP should have to be its standard bearer. The party wants to keep control of the White House, not hand it over to Hillary Clinton in a landslide.

Huckabee, a third tier candidate until he launced a holy war on Mitt Romney, would turn off many Republicans. Especially those concerned with fiscal policy, and foregin policy. Huckabee, as governor, raised taxes numerous times, was an open borders advocate, claiming that it was unchristian to keep control of our borders.

Then there are his stances on trade. Pandering to the protectionist populist right, he stands against free trade, when free trade has only made the American economy more open, and helped to grow to the size it is today. If Huckabee were to be nominated we would be saying that opening up the markets would no longer be a priority for the GOP, and that the failed suffocating protectionism of the past would be front and center again. The GOP, historically, has been the party of capitalism and being business friendly. How friendly can the GOP be to free enterprise if we endorse statist trade policies?

His views on taxes are no better. As governor he raised taxes, and now is flirting the he half witted, half baked idea of the fair tax, a punitive national sales tax on everything. The GOP found success when it became the party of smaller government and lower taxes, when the party abandons those principles it suffers at the ballot box.

Huckabee might be a strong social conservative, his pro life record is unquestionable and he is against gay marriage. These are assets, but they are not the most important thing. After all, with the exception of Rudy Giuliani, all the candidates are pro life and they are all against gay marriage.

And should anyone forget we are fighting a global war against jihadists who have killed thousands of Americans and want to go on killing as many as they can possibly kill. Is Huckabee the right man to lead that war? We don't need to revert to a september the 10th mindset. His record as governor is weak and his foreign policy ideas leave much to be desired. In truth he hasn't done anything to warrant all the attention he is getting, nor has he done anything to be designated the frontrunner in Iowa.

Huckabee claims to be a conservative, when in fact all he advocates is big government conservatism. The GOP would do well to nominate someone else.