Why Huckabee Will Never Get My Vote

I've finally run across something that sums up my thoughts on the man completely.

Rich, I think what a lot of evangelicals may be missing here is that many non-evangelical conservatives are completely baffled, and frustrated, by the amount of support for the non-conservative Bush-channeling Huckabee. When we sit back and look at the amount of frustration and consternation that Bush has caused among conservatives, and then see Huckabee (who represents everything bad about Bush, with few of his positive characteristics) gaining the support of a fourth of our party, we have to ask ourselves why. The most obvious answer seems to be that he is attracting so much support because he is the only evangelical candidate in the race. To many conservatives, well at least to me, this idea that we should betray conservative principles in order to support a candidate with the right religious credentials is more than shocking, it is abhorrent, and the result is an anti-evangelical backlash. I consider myself a social conservative, and share so much common ground with evangelicals that it truly hurts me to see the strain being placed on our relationship. But as long as their power is used to push a statist non-conservative candidate on our party, we will not be seeing eye-to-eye.

I will vote third party before I vote for that man. His meteoric rise in the polls has been deeply disheartening to me. I just can't believe that so many people can see him as a serious candidate for the Republican nominee.
I'm not a 'social conservative' though I agree with them on many things (importance of family, public morality, standards and values). I don't like the fact that the presidency is seen as some kind of standard bearer in our cultural wars but I don't expect that to change anytime soon. It's not that big a deal to me, certainly not a deal breaker.
But. The vibe of this campaign is becoming more and more that Republican = Christian, and we'll deal with all that other messy stuff later. Sorry, but I don't like that one little bit.
There is a natural intermarriage between more religious folk and more conservative ones. There is a mutual respect for tradition and order. The increasing demands for more religion is straining that marriage. I don't like it and it will spell disaster both electorally and for the future of both groups.
Great column by Peggy Noonan on this same topic today, btw.

I wonder if our old friend Ronald Reagan could rise in this party, this environment. Not a regular churchgoer, said he experienced God riding his horse at the ranch, divorced, relaxed about the faiths of his friends and aides, or about its absence. He was a believing Christian, but he spent his adulthood in relativist Hollywood, and had a father who belonged to what some saw, and even see, as the Catholic cult. I'm just not sure he'd be pure enough to make it in this party. I'm not sure he'd be considered good enough.