Huckabee 'serious' about White House run

The nation's longest-serving governor, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas- the "other Man from Hope-" has acknowledged that he is seriously considering running for president.

Huckabee has some interesting positions; he is clearly not pandering to the base on immigration. Acknowledging that some hostility to illegal immigrants is to to "racism or nativism," he approves, for the most part, of President Bush's position- and is willing to forthrightly (and accurately) point out that "it's not amnesty to make people pay for breaking the law," even it they are subsequently allowed to seek citizenship.

I like the courage and integrity that reflects. I also like his combination of both social and economic conservatism, his realistic concern for the environment, his concern for the poor, and his willingness to be reticent about resorting to military force when other options are available. On the other hand, I have absolutely no idea what he means when he says that we should act as if global warming is real because there is "no downside in conserving our resources."

A safe position, I suppose. But there can well be a downside in the fortunes of entire industries in granting crackpot environmental alarmism more legitimacy than it deserves. That global warming has taken place nobody denies; the question is whether it is likely to have the dire impact some predict. Shouldn't our response reflect the best information we can gather?