Huckabee will divide the conservative coalition.

Reasons to agree

1. Huckabee has every right to think that his religion tells him to use tax-payer-money to give tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants. However, if he thinks compassion should be the overriding principal of his political philosophy, he should join the Democratic Party. Compassion may be a hyphenated word that is attached to words that describe our political policy, but it is not the focus of our political beliefs and actions. We add another word after the hyphen.
2. Republicans think that we should FOCUS our compassion on the poor people overseas who OBAY THE LAW, and come hear the right way. Some republicans believe in compassion, but a lot of republicans think there should be limits to politicians trying to be compassionate with other people’s money, the way that Huckabee tries to.
3. Republicans balance their compassion with an effort to reward good behavior, and yes, sometimes punish bad behavior. We believe in tough love, and a compassion that looks at problem with the big picture… that giving compassion in the short range may create dependency and destroy the character that makes long term prosperity possible.
4. Like the song says, you have to be cruel to be kind in the right measure.
5. Huckabee has every right to think he should be compassionate, and give tuition breaks to children of illegal aliens, but he does not have a right to call himself a republican while he does it.
6. Huckabee has every right to say that it was good of him to increase state Spending a whopping 65.3% from 1996 to 2004, but he can’t say that was good and call himself a republican. Huckabee might be able to make the argument that spending was good, but he shouldn’t be allowed to make that argument as a presidential candidate FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
7. Huchabee might have been right to increase the number of state government workers by 20% during his tenure (Arkansas Leader 04/15/2006). Democrats might be right. Maybe a big government is better than a small government, but why have two parties if both of them increase the size of government? Romney on the other hand significantly decreased government workers in his state. But he can’t say this, and try to represent the whole Republican Party. We have a big tent, but we have strong stakes that support that tent, that can’t be bent.
8. Huckabee might have been right to have let the state’s debt to shoot up by almost $1 billion (according to Americans for tax Reform). Democrats might be right, perhaps you can spend more money than you have. We all know republicans haven’t done much better recently, but should we pick a guy that takes our hypocracy to a new level? Democrats might be right but why have two parties if one of them isn’t for balancing the budget? But he can’t make this argument as republican nominee. You have to draw the line somewhere.
9. Huckabee might have been right to have pardoned 1,033 people while in office. Democrats might be right, but their is no point in having two political parties if one party isn’t tough on crime.
10. Sure, there are some republicans who only care about abortion, and would vote for Huckabee over Hillary or Barak. But they are not a majority. For republicans to win we have to keep our coalition together. Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton are no less likely to keep spending down in Washington, or keep taxes down than Mike Huckabee. Infact we have never seen Hillary or Barak increase taxes directly, or increase spending but we have 8 years of Huckabee to prove what he would do, no matter what.
11. So people in the republican party who don’t really care about abortion, who are just in the republican party because they believe in small government will have no reason to vote for a republican in 2008.
12. People who want America to be on the offensive in the War in Terror will have no reason to support Huckabee who thinks Bush is arrogant, has a bunker mentality, wants to close Guantanamo, and didn’t even know what the NIE report. At least Hillary and Obama knew what the NIE report was.
13. But I’m hurting your feelings. I am disagreeing with you, and you are mad at me, because I am criticizing you guy. All you care about is that your candidate goes to a Christian church like Huckabee. You would never support someone like Fred Thompson that doesn’t go to church that often. You could also never vote for someone who is from a “cult”. You are right. People like you are an important part of the republican coalition, but you are not the only part of the party. You may represent a majority of the republican party, but you do not represent the majority of the American people. If you send up a guy like Huckabee, against Barak Obama, you will get every vote from value voters. But those whose main issues are the war on terrorism and small government, will have no reason to vote for your guy over the first African American or first woman president. Besides, for those republicans who belong to the republican party because of our “arrogant” mentality or small government viewpoint, will be able to vote for the democrats, because at least that side will have to stop throwing hand-grenades, and acting like adults. They will get a chance to run things, and will have to act like adults, and do much the same things that they hate Bush for doing.
14. Social conservatives make up an important part of the republican party, but they are not the only part. Just ask Jimmy Carter who actually had the guts to stay in the party of compassion.
15. Go join Jimmy Carter’s political party Mike. I don’t want you in mine. Its not that I don’t like you. Its just that I think the republican party should stand for something. Its not that I’m saying your wrong. You might be right, but you are not a republican.

Reasons to disagree: 

Interest / Motivation of those who agree:

1. Promoting Mormonism by promoting Mitt Romney by opposing Huckabee who is Romney's rival.
2. Promoting the Republican party by promoting another person if they think that person is more qualified.
3. Promoting religious minorities. 
4. Promoting the separation of church and state. 
5. Getting back at religious people for trying to making them feel bad about their actions.
6. Promoting immigration from people from your race, if you are from the race that is trying to immigrate. 

Interest / Motivation of those who disagree:

1. Opposing Mormonism, by Opposing Mitt Romney, who was Huckabee's main rival.
2. Promoting the Republican party by promoting Huckabee if they think that person is the most qualified.

3. Promoting evangelicalism.

4. Opposing religious minorities. 
5. Be seen as "strongly" committed within their religious community by promoting their church's power by opposing the separation of church and state.
6. Opposing immigration from people who are not your race, if you are not from the race that is trying to immigrate. 

Books that agree:

Books that disagree:

People who agree 

People who disagree 

Web pages that agree

Web pages that disagree 

Huckabee Lies 

Huckabee will harm the republican party.