The current Presidential race has had just about everything in it--including a Baptist preacher.  The Baptist preacher, of course, is Mike Huckabee, former Governor of the State of Arkansas.  The wisdom floating about these days suggests that the Republican Party may be counting on Huckabee to lasso and corrall the evangelical Christian vote for them later this year.  Well, that may or may not happen.  You see, Baptists are not all alike.  Not nearly.  Huckabee will appeal to some Baptists.  He has been a pastor and an evangelist before turning to politics.  There is much to like and admire about him.  One of those things is that although he is conservative, he is also a consensus builder.  John McCain may be a consensus builder, also.   A consensus builder is a contrast to an ideologue.  The ideologue tends to alienate because he/she sticks to the party line, philosophy, theology, etc.  The Republican Party has tilted toward conservative, neo-conservative ideology for at least the last eight years.  The country is restless because of that.
   
Mike Huckabee might be able to hold many of the conservative Christian ideologues in the party and get them to the polls in November.  But maybe that won't be enough.  Why not?  Not every Baptist is a conservative, neo-conservative right wing ideologue.  Many Baptists are centrists.  They consider themselves a part of the "big middle" of voters in this country.  They favor bi-partisan approaches to solving the country's problems.  Would Mike Huckabee reach across the aisle to the Democrats to craft strategies and solve problems?  Few Republicans or Democrats do reach across the aisle.  Increasingly, I think, the really successful politicians are going to be those who seek bi-partisan solutions to problems.  The electorate is looking for results in the way life is lived in the USA, not for political victories.  Mike could do this, and he could appeal to Baptists and others who see themselves as centrists. 
   
Another group of Baptists are  liberal, very much left leaning.  Their number are not huge, but you might be surprised how many are out there.  Most of them are Democrats and will vote Democrat.  Huckabee might be able to get a few of them to support him but probably not many.  I think that he would help McCain with the most conservative of Christians and maybe with some centrists, but he will miss large numbers of constituents who may be liberal Christians or persons who choose not to identify with the evangelical Christian movement at all.  There are even some arch conservative folk who think Huckabee is too liberal.  Poor Mike.  He can't please everybody.  Can he please enough voters to land a place on the national ticket?   Or to get the ticket elected in November?   Time will tell.  Some other tantalizing possible choices for a running mate for McCain have been suggested:  Haley Barbour, Condoleeza Rice, Joe Lieberman  are just a few.  Condoleeza Rice would be a choice to consider carefully, in my view.  She would help Republicans against both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but whether or not the powers that be see it that way is another question to be answered later this summer.

As for Huckabee, he is a likeable guy, and he is doing better than most thought he would do on the national campaign trail.  We'll keep an eye on him as we will on all the others.