Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper

There’s a lot of talk by GOP reformers, like David Brooks and Reihan Salam, is the candidate that can find a way to meld the party’s socially conservative message as part of a greater message of security and support for the middle income, downscale, white voters that make up much of the GOP base.  He’s the one that will be able to wean the GOP from the ideologically rigid Norquist-Kristol-Scaife axis that controls much of the GOP’s fundraising and policies.  The implicit message is that his appeal would be different from Bush’s by way of Rove.

But when it came down to the most important part of governance and reform — getting votes — Huckabee is something of an ur-Rovian.  His support was almost entirely driven by evangelicals, who seemingly support him because there is no other credible candiate that shares their faith or their values.  While evangelicals are good for working phone banks and getting voters in the booth, one can not reform a party or try to re-orient it ideologically by solely making Christian identity politics appeals.  And while Ross Douthat may be begging Huckabee to pivot into a candidate with heterodox policy ideas to go along with his evangelical appeal, it does not seem that Huckabee wants to do that or even knows how.