Huckabee. As I see it, there are really only two flaws in his campaign. His stance on finances and his foreign relations bits. On the financial front, he supports the complete removal of the IRS and any sort of payroll taxes. He’d replace them all with a “fair tax”. That’s a national sales tax. Makes me shiver a little. But a quick check confirms that most of the Republican candidates support the same thing. And I’m not worried because there’s only so much a President can do. And getting the IRS removed and a national sales tax implemented is near impossible. What I would like to see is some privatized social security funds though. And he seems to support that.

The foreign policy bit is a little different. He’s taken a lot of heat lately for not knowing whether Pakistan is in a state of martial law or on which side of the country Afghanistan lies. I have to be honest, I couldn’t have told you whether they even shared a border a week ago. I’m not running for president though, so it’s not nearly as important to me. But that’s also what a President has a cabinet for. And alot of aides. A Lot! There is no way that we can expect a person to know by heart all that there is to know about all the countries that might come up from time to time. Should he be better about this? Yes. But it really doesn’t worry me. Then again, I really think we shouldn’t stick our noses where they don’t belong. Fix America first, then deal with the rest of the world.

Save for a few flaws, I really agree with a lot of what Huckabee has been saying. He’s pro life. Me too. He’s pro 2nd Amendment. Me too. He’s a man of faith. Me too. He has a decent plan for immigration reform. I like that. He wants to push preventative health care and reform the whole health care system. I like that. He supports energy independence. I like that.

When I tally it all up, it equals a candidate that I agree with a heck of a lot more than I disagree with. And a heck of a lot more than most of the other candidates. We’ll see how it all boils down over the next couple of months. I might have to pick a new candidate after the primaries if Huckabee doesn’t do well. Then it’s back to square one.

But, until then, I’m for Huckabee.

I can understand your reluctance to take a posting in a locale that could be very dangerous.  I do not believe it is a “death sentence.”  I realize that you are not trained as soldiers so I don’t think I’ll try and make the comparison, but they do their job every day.  Police take their lives into their hands each and every day.  Same for Firemen.  If you don’t want the danger or risk, find a different job.  Simple as that.

With that said, I don’t see any point in having diplomats in actual war zones.  Like I’ve said, some level of danger is to be expected and comes with the job, but working in war zones?  I was under the impression that we pulled diplomats from war zones, not sent them in to them.  Condi Rice seems to think that the jobs “must be filled” but do they?

Make the area safer, or at least get it to a point that it can’t be considered a war zone.  Then put those guys out there.  You can’t reasonably ask a bunch of manicured and pedicured half politicians to go into a war zone.

If they don’t volunteer to go into a war zone they shouldn’t have to go.  Why don’t you find someone from the military ranks to temporarily fill those positions until we can safely declare it’s not a war zone.