Like him or not, I think it’s time he gets moved from the also-ran category to the candidate-to-be-taken-seriously category.  Check out the surge (Huckabee in green):

He’s leading in Iowa, and the new LA Times/Bloomberg poll now has him in second nationally, surging past Romney.  [UPDATE:  Rassmussen poll out today has Huckabee in first nationally!] Not bad for a guy who was polling only 5% a few months ago….

Sadly, even if you’re a Republican, you have to be concerned about his lack of foreign policy experience.  He doesn’t even know about the Iran NIE, which has been the top story for at least two days now:

Reporter: I don’t know to what extent you have been briefed or been able to take a look at the NIE report that came out yesterday …

Huckabee: I’m sorry?

Reporter: The NIE report, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Have you been briefed or been able to take a look at it –

Huckabee: No.

Reporter: Have you heard of the finding?

Huckabee: No.

Yikes.

He’s also got a Wille Horton issue.  As governor of Arkansas, he parolled and released a convict who had raped a relative of Bill Clinton.  The rapist, Wayne DuMond, became a political pawn back in the Clinton Administration, with anti-Clinton forces claiming that he was "framed" by the eeeeeevil Bill Clinton.  Apparently suffering from Clinton Derangement Syndrome, Huckabee became convinced that DuMond was "railroaded by the former governor" and was therefore innocent. 

“Dear Wayne,” Huckabee wrote in a letter to DuMond. “My desire is that you be released from prison. I feel that parole is the best way for your reintroduction to society to take place.”

That freed convict subsequently molested and murdered two women.  Full detailed story here.