Huckabee and the AM radio pundit class

Let me open by saying that I love the opinions and analysis offered by conservative pundit's on AM radio, coupled with FM radio excursions to the usually liberal perspectives on NPR.

On the AM dial; however, I have noticed a developing and interesting phenomenon whereby the conservative pundit class seems to be running off a cliff with respect to Mike Huckabee. There is this talk of Huckabee being a liberal, and an economic populist who is anti-corporation and on and on.

This phenomenon even reached the Republican presidential debate in South Carolina January 10, when Fred Thompson declared that Mike Huckabee was a holder of liberal ideas aligned with the Democrat party.

I find the populist and liberal democrat brush that is being stroked about Huckabee’s economic and foreign policies by the conservative radio pundit class to be woefully off base and out of touch.

Mike Huckabee spoke at the Detroit Economic Club and delivered a passionate and heartfelt speech January 11, 2008 that is available at C-Span's web site. Click here to view.

I watched and listened, and what I heard from Huckabee was a need for a strong entrepreneurial spirit, unleashing creativity, innovation, growing small business, reducing over-regulation, reducing taxes on productivity, creating economic opportunity for anyone who wants to work for it, and a fair tax system. As a conservative these are ideas I have always embraced.

Huckabee's foreign policy appears like an optimized version of Bush 41 (coalition building), Bush 43 (broad offensive strategy against terrorism, and radical Islam), and energy independence.

Huckabee connects with people like no other Republican candidate does, and he reaches out to a broader segment of the population, not just the suits, or the professional/managerial class, but also the boots and flannel shirts, and single working moms.

I sincerely believe that the more the AM radio pundits misrepresent Huckabee, and the more people hear Huckabee directly, the wider the gap becomes within the conservative movement between the conservative establishment and pundit class, and common conservatives.