Mike Huckabee is the best candidate for the Republicans

I'd like to start this debate off by saying that I do not hate Huckabee, nor do I think he's the worst Republican running in the primaries. However, I do not think that he is the best Republican candidate. First, I'll share some things about Mike that I like (either a lot or to some extent): his pro-life/stem cell reputation, his work to define marriage through a constitutional amendment, gay adoption stance, support of teaching alternatives to Darwinism in schools, his pro-gun record, support for military growth, pro-Israel philosophy, and his anti-universal healthcare views. However, I ask - why settle for a Republican candidate who is solid on some issues but not the majority of issues when there is a candidate who is? Personally, I support Fred Thompson for president because I feel he best encompasses the conservative viewpoint (at least out of everyone running). I'm not going to turn this into a "why you should vote for FDT" debate, so I'll lay off the facts about Fred for awhile. The problems I have with Mike Huckabee are as follows: • His views of immigration. He agreed with the President's immigration plan (aka amnesty for illegals). In his state of Arkansas, he supported using taxpayer money to fund the college tuition of illegal immigrants children. He also wants to abolish the law that says one must be a natural born citizen to become president. • His tax record is not that of an economic conservative. In 1996 he signed a sales tax hike to fund the Park and Tourism Departments of Arkansas; in 2001 he supported an internet sales tax; he opposed the repeal of sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002; he signed bills raising taxes on gasoline, cigarettes, and a bed-tax for patients in private nursing homes between the years of 1999 and 2001; he opposed a bill from congress that would ban internet taxes in 2003; and in 2004 he allowed 17% sales tax increase in his state. Through his career as governor he was responsible for 37% higher sales tax, 16% higher gas tax, and a 103% tobacco tax. This is simply not the conservative way. This coupled with his willingness to use tax money for illegal immigrants provides a scary outlook for what his presidency would look like. His tax stances are very Clinton-esque. • He has been known to give pardons to criminals who simply claim to be born-again Christians and he gave more pardons as the governor of Arkansas than even Bill Clinton did. • His 'compassionate' conservative stance is not what the country needs after 8 years of Bush. We need a die-hard, Reagan conservative and Huckabee is most certainly not one of these. He is a BIG government conservative just like W and in the same way the democrat candidates are for big government. Check out this article: http://www.foxnews.com... As much as I don't like saying it since I am a Christian myself, I believe the majority of people supporting him are doing so because he's a proud pro-life Christian and the media has spent so much time hashing on that that it seems there no other logical candidate for the Evangelicals to vote for. I say examine the facts closely and you'll find there's other candidates who share the same positives with Huckabee but don't have as negatives. I'll end with a quote from Fred Thompson when asked - isn't Huckabee a conservative? "You're talking about Huckabee? No. He's pro-life and of course I received the endorsement of the national pro-life group and several of the state groups, we share that strong conviction. But in terms of social policies taxes and illegal immigration and in terms of his view as how the world works, as best as I can determine it, we don't share those views at all. I think we have a different vantage point on that."