Back in 1998, Mike Huckabee attended the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference, to explain why he had left his work as a Southern Baptist preacher to become a politician. Huckabee used the parable of his days as a Southern Baptist preacher, and what he discovered about the right kind of leadership. The right kind of leadership, he explained, was not about making people happy.

In his first church, Huckabee explained, “they wanted the captain of the Love Boat. They just wanted everybody to be happy. It was not about how many people were won to Christ or how many teens were pulled away from drugs or how many marriages were saved. Instead, it was about the seniors having a great trip going to watch the fall leaves change, the teen-agers going to a better summer camp than the church across town.”

Instead, Huckabee learned that “I was supposed to be the captain of a warship leading the congregation into a battle against spiritual darkness.”

This vision of leadership still dominates Mike Huckabee’s political philosophy. He doesn’t want to use the power of the Presidency to actually serve people, by providing the services that they need. Instead, Huckabee wants to gain the White House so that he can lead the United States on a moral crusade against sin.

Mike Huckabee is so obsessed with his Southern Baptist vision of righteousness that he’s unwilling to attend to the business that government is supposed to attend to - providing services for the general welfare. The last thing America needs is another president who will take America on rambling, incoherent crusades while leaving practical matters to moulder.

(Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 8, 1998)