Here's a bit from Richard Cohen's latest in the Washington Post:
Mike Huckabee, the affable former governor of Arkansas and, more to the point, an ordained Baptist minister... raised his hand in the negative last May when all the GOP presidential candidates were asked whether they believed in the theory of evolution. In doing so, Huckabee failed a religious test for the presidency established inadvertently by George W. Bush.
More after the jump.
Back before Bush, it was considered narrow-minded and, worst of all, elitist, to judge a person by the intensity of his religious convictions. Belief was not supposed to matter, and so it was impermissible to conclude anything about a person even if he thought Darwin was wrong or, more recently, that homosexuals chose their sexual orientation, presumably just to irritate the Christian right. Religion was irrelevant. Everyone said so - and I agreed.Bush changed that.
I don't think this apportions blame in exactly the right way. When Cohen says "everyone said so - and I agreed," what he means is that, in the very recent past, nobody in the national press corps was willing to scrutinize candidates and nominees - to ask what animated their political views - because ... well because people like Richard Cohen, Richard Cohen's friends, Richard Cohen's colleagues, Richard Cohen's underlings, and Richard Cohen's employers decided it would be easier for everybody if those issues were just never addressed. The "personal views" excuse was just that.
And meanwhile, it was perfectly fair game for the establishment punditocracy to extrapolate all sorts of conclusions about Bill Clinton's political judgment - and, indeed, his ability to lead - based upon his extra-marital philandering.
Of course - with Huckabee positioned so well in Iowa - Cohen's right to pay attention now, whether or not his concern on this score is a decade or two belated. Because, as Bill Clinton himself proved in 1992, a "comeback kid" narrative can change everything, and Americans ought to have their eyes open to this stuff ... even if Mike Huckabee seems like the sort of person that Richard Cohen - and, well, Brian Beutler - might like to seek personal advice from or live next door to or grab a beer non-alcoholic beverage with.
