Goldberg on Huckabee; Hurley on Paul

I find Jonah's representation of Mike Huckabee to be fairly in line with my own thinking:

What's troubling about The Man From Hope 2.0 is what he represents. Huckabee represents compassionate conservatism on steroids. A devout social conservative on issues such as abortion, school prayer, homosexuality and evolution, Huckabee is a populist on economics, a fad-follower on the environment and an all-around do-gooder who believes that the biblical obligation to do "good works" extends to using government -- and your tax dollars -- to bring us closer to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Huckabee is a health Nazi on top of all of that... The LAST thing America needs is a health Nazi in the White House...

While we're on the topic of "Also Rans...", Jonah seems to think that Huck is less "scary" for conservatives than the Ruler of Ronulus himself:

As the hopeless but energetic presidential campaign of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) builds momentum in name recognition, fundraising and cross-ideology appeal, media conservatives are beginning to attack Paul in earnest. Republican consultant David Hill condemns the candidate's "increasingly leftish" positions. Syndicated columnist Mona Charen calls Paul "too cozy with kooks and conspiracy theorists." Film critic and talk radio host Michael Medved looks over Paul's supporters and finds "an imposing collection of neo-Nazis, white Supremacists, Holocaust deniers, 9/11 'truthers' and other paranoid and discredited conspiracists."

For the most part, these allegations strike me as overblown and unfair. But, for argument's sake, let's say they're not. Let's even say that Paul has the passionate support of the Legion of Doom, that his campaign lunchroom looks like the "Star Wars" cantina, and that many of his top advisors actually have hooves.

Well, I would still find him less scary than Mike Huckabee.

This is just downright astounding... Jonah is willing to concede all of the crazy Ronulans and the Ruler himself because Huck is strictly a social conservative and that is it.

The real threat to the Republic comes from Ron Paul. Not neccessarily the man himself, but rather who he represents... The Truther Candidate is not what this country needs during a time of war against Islamofascism. This country doesn't need that kind of paranoia at the controls in a crisis. Ron Paul wants to stick our heads in the sand and wait for the Islamofascists to come here and hack them off...that is FAR MORE DANGEROUS than any health Nazi...

I know that there are a few Ron Paul fans in the State of Ohio Blogger Alliance... And I know that they think they are right about Ron Paul and what he stands for...and I'll even admit to shaking my head in favor of some of the things he has said in dabates, but none of that matters if he fails to recognize the world we actually live in...and Ron Paul hasn't a clue about that.

Both of these guys are "scary" but Ron Paul represents the larger danger to conservatism and the future of this country.

UPDATE: On the other hand, this last paragraph is also thought-provoking...

I would not vote for Paul mostly because I think his foreign policy would be disastrous (and because he'd lose in a rout not seen since Bambi versus Godzilla). But there's something weird going on when Paul, the small-government constitutionalist, is considered the extremist in the Republican Party while Huckabee, the statist, is the lovable underdog. It's even weirder because it's probably true: Huckabee is much closer to the mainstream. And that's what scares me about Huckabee and the mainstream alike.

Conservatives: We have a LOT of work to do...