Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee announced his Presidential candidacy on Meet the Press today. I admire his weight loss and bass guitar skills, and I’m sure he’s a perfectly good person, but I don’t think he’d make a very good national leader based on what I’ve seen thus far.

Saturday’s heads-up article said Huckabee would be running against a crowd led by three better-funded candidates, but that “those three men [McCain, Romney and Giuliani] have records or positions on social or fiscal issues that don’t sit well with conservative voters — and that could give Huckabee an opening.”

Huckabee won’t be filling that “conservative opening” any time soon.

First, you have CATO’s Fiscal Policy Report Card, showing Huckabee to have earned a F for his final term and a D overall (for comparison, Tennessee’s Gov. Bredesen, a Democrat, earned a B).

Thanks to a final term grade of F, Huckabee earns an overall grade of D for his entire governorship. Like many Republicans, his grades dropped the longer he stayed in office. In his first few years, he fought hard for a sweeping $70 million tax cut package that was the first broad-based tax cut in the state in more than 20 years. He even signed a bill to cut the state’s 6 percent capital gains tax—a significant pro-growth accomplishment. But nine days after being reelected in 2002, he proposed a sales tax increase to cover a budget deficit caused partly by large spending increases that he proposed and approved, including an expansion in Medicare eligibility that Huckabee made a centerpiece of his 1997 agenda. He agreed to a 3 percent income tax “surcharge” and a 25-cent cigarette tax increase. In response to a court order to increase spending on education, Huckabee proposed another sales tax increase. Huckabee wants to run for the GOP presidential nomination next year. He’s already been hailed as a viable big-government conservative candidate by some. That seems about right: Huckabee’s leadership has left taxpayers in Arkansas much worse off.

In the interview, Tim Russert quoted from this Hotline profile (a good read): “[The Club for Growth] say [Huckabee] raised taxes five times — a gas tax increase in 1999, the cigarette tax hike, tax increases in ‘2004, a tax on beer and a tax on nursing homes.”

The Hotline also reports that, “just months after he came into office, Huckabee championed a state constitutional amendment that aimed to levy a small (1/8th of a cent) conservation tax,” and that he “signed a law that makes his state’s [minimum wage] the highest in the region.”

It was easy to sympathize when Huckabee told Russert he wouldn’t take a no-tax pledge as President, because “it’s a very dangerous position to make pledges that are outside the most important pledge you make, and that is the oath you take to uphold the Constitution and protect the people of the United States.”

Still, Huckabee is clearly not a fiscal conservative, or as the Hotline puts it, he is a big government conservative, and “not anchored by ideology.”

In fact, Huckabee’s willingness to cave on conservative fiscal ideology earned him a place among TIME magazine’s top 5 governors. As I wrote about it earlier:

TIME’s roundup of “America’s 5 Best Governors” includes Virginia’s Mark Warner, who “pushed through the state’s largest tax hike”; Nevada’s Kenny Guinn, who “fought for the largest tax increase in state history”; and Arkansas’ Mike Huckabee, who “helped persuade voters to increase their own gas taxes.” Rounding out the five are two red-state Democrats (Arizona’s Janet Napolitano and Kansas’ Kathleen Sebelius) who have held the line on taxes but have promoted increased social spending while deftly dividing state Republicans. Included in the “worst governors in America” list is South Carolina’s Mark Sanford, whose only sin appears to be frugality.

Second, you have Huckabee’s miserable record on illegal immigration. The AP reports that he “opposed banning state services for illegal immigrants,” and he spoke out against the Real ID act, which would have required proof of citizenship or legal residency in order to obtain a driver’s license. The premiere Mike Huckabee shill blog came to his defense, calling the law an “unfunded mandate.” But somehow the “unfunded mandate” had been working just fine for the 39 states already requiring such proof prior to the federal law, which was supported by a majority of U.S.-born Hispanics and Latino voters.

Third, Huckabee’s rather squishy when it comes to social conservatism, as well.

When Russert asked if he would seek to ban abortion as President, Huckabee dodged by saying that he couldn’t do it “singularly,” and that the issue had to be advanced socially rather than legislatively. Huckabee also dodged when Russert asked what the penalty should be for doctors who perform abortions and woman who have them if there was a ban, such as the one Huckabee said he supported in South Dakota.

Huckabee also attempts to redefine “pro-life” and stretches its meaning into a laundry list of issues:

But I think those of us in the pro-life movement, we have to do also some growing and expanding. We have to remind people that life, that we believe it begins at conception. It doesn’t end at birth. And if we’re really pro-life we have to be concerned about more than just the gestation period. As a pro-life person, as a governor, look at my record. Yes, did we pass pro-life legislation? We did. But we also did things that improved the environmental quality and the conservation issues that would affect a child’s air and water. We also made sure that he had a better education, that access to affordable health care would be better. So I think that real pro-life people need to be concerned about affordable housing, we need to be concerned about safe neighborhoods, access to a college education. That, for me, is what pro-life has to mean.

Did Jim Wallis write that one for you, Mike? I can almost guarantee that quote will headline the next issue of SoJo Mail. Thanks so much for selling us out, there.

Huckabee apparently agrees with critics who charge pro-life activists with hypocrisy. But that’s always been nonsense. Pro-lifers celebrate life at every stage. The reason we’re adamant defenders of the unborn is because nobody else seems to care about them, and that’s the one stage where life is legally expendable. And now that you can legally starve someone to death, it’s soon becoming one of two life stages, I suppose.

But you’re trying to tell me I’m pro-life just because I’m “concerned about affordable housing?” Give me a break.

Access to a college education? It’s called taking out a freaking loan.

How about we redefine pro-life to mean no new taxes? That would certainly improve our quality of life, but we don’t see you signing up for that, now, do we?

[UPDATE: Bill Hobbs defends Huckabee at Elephantbiz.com.
UPDATE II: ...but The American Spectator isn't as generous.]

To close, here are some resources on Huckabee. The first is a link to a USA Today round table discussion with Huckabee and another Presidential hopeful, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

And below the fold are my unedited notes from Huckabee’s speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis early last year, where he suggested that things were just hunky dorey for Republicans. No, really. Enjoy:

Why be a Republican in Arkansas?

Because of the Bible.

Ecclesiastes 2: A wise man turns his heart toward the right. Foolish man turns heart toward the left.

Being GOP in ARK is like being fire hydrant in neighborhood full of dogs.

More people here than voted for me in first primary.

None of us in politics have any ego whatsoever.

We’re here to convince you that no one has interest beyond 2006 elections. We don’t know why people are going to NH Iowa and SC.

Andy Griffith

Opie was a democrat.

How do I know?

One episode: Opie given a slingshot. Shoots carelessly and kills bird. Son, now your responsibility to care birds. Brings them up and cares for them. Son, time to let them go. Opie didn’t want to let them go. It sure is an empty cage paw. Yeah, but don’t the trees look full and pretty.

Opie was a Democrat. Discouraged when he was no longer able to care for the birds. Andy was a Republican.

I wonder, what’s the hand-wringing going on in GOP circles?

Americans elected GWB not once, but twice.

The voters of the US gave us a GOP majority in Senate. Voted House to be GOP controlled.

Gov of states, 70% of population governed by a Republican.

Raising $6 for each $1 Democrats raise.

Howard Dean ready to scream.

Desperate Democrats.

I’m not here to wring hands. And note decline of party.

I believe the same reason we were elected to these offices and are out raising them.

2 things cause us to win: Ideas and Idealism.

We said we could reform welfare. I remember hand wringing of Democrats. They said unemployment rolls will swell. We cut them by half and now have lowest unemployment in history. And record-breaking revenues.

Changes in our culture. We must make sure we don’t forget why it is.

Leave it to Beaver better than Beavis and Butthead.

Father Knows Best not Father Knows Nothing

Drive by vs Drive in Movies.

Things were better when teachers carried paddles and children carried books, not pepper spray and handguns.

Abortion.

Taxes.

The Average American isn’t saying “tax me more”

I signed first ever tax decrease in state.

Liberals said we need to raise taxes.

I set up the “tax me more” fund. Had envelopes. Mail it in.

One year later, $1,000 had come in.

Dems think we’re losing the war on terror.

I just came back from Iraq, and someone forgot to tell that to the soldiers who are actually sucking the sand and doing the work. You have a hard time convincing them we’re losing.

Soldier I met, was wounded by Humvee IED. Why are you going back?

I demanded to go back, he said.

Why?

Because they need me.

Let Dems say what they want, I still would rather them fight in Baghdad than Boston.

When it comes to ideas on Health Care, most Americans don’t want to blame food industry.

Better way – consumer driven marketplace where you make choices. Responsibly and incentives for taking better care of ourselves. Portability so that employers don’t own the plan, we do.

I am living example of what it is to go from unhealthy to healthy.

We’re spending 16% on healthcare.

$17 billion dollars – it’s also an economic issue.

GM – spends more on healthcare than on steel

When you’re buying a car, you’re mostly paying for health care.

DEMS have different idea about marriage. They want to redefine it.

I’m still trying to learn the rules after 35 years of marriage, and I don’t want them changed now.

1,000 points of light, morning in America resonate better than misery index.

Republican by choice.

Grew up in little house in Hope and now lives in Gov mansion.

Dad worked two jobs.

Grew up, first male to graduate from High School.

This is why I’m an idealist.

My alma mater now will name its school of education after me. What a transition.

My dad when I was 8 said son you may live your whole life and may never meet the Gov of Arkansas. And now I ARE one.

My dad was a patriotic American. He laid on the stripes and I saw the stars.

My streets were paved with the gold of opportunity.

My trust fund was trust in God, who can take you anywhere.

We need to realize that our ideas are good ideas. That’s why people have elected us.

We’re not looking at what the US is wrong about, but what it’s right about.

We’re Republican because we see the things that need to be fixed and say give us a chance.

As Larry the Cable guy would say, “we’ll get her done.”

God bless you.