Huckabee's Conservative Conversion

I'm beginning to think that Mike Huckabee has had some sort of Damascus Road experience lately because he's suddenly shifting some of his more liberal policies to match up with the conservatives he so desperately needs to win. He's been roundly criticized for his stance on illegal immigration, such as his support for in-state tuition rates and taxpayer funded scholarships for illegals. Suddenly today there's a story that he wants to send all illegals home:

TIGERVILLE, S.C. — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee yesterday continued to move to the right on immigration during this year's presidential campaign, signing a pledge to enforce immigration laws and to make all illegal aliens go home.

The pledge, offered by immigration control advocacy group Numbers USA, commits Mr. Huckabee to oppose a new path to citizenship for current illegal aliens and to cut the number of illegal aliens already in the country through attrition by law enforcement — something Mr. Huckabee said he will achieve through his nine-point immigration plan.

"Some would say it's a tough plan. It is, but it's also fair and reasonable," Mr. Huckabee said.

Hmmmmm.

Back in August of 2007 it was reported that Huckabee wanted to sign a national ban on smoking. I'm no fan of smoking, but a national ban sounds pretty "nanny state" to me. It's not a conservative approach. However, the siren song of conservative voters has brought him around yet again and just the other day it was reported that he has reversed his plan to ban smoking after getting a fair amount of criticism.

Mitt Romney has come under tremendous criticism for what is seen as a late conversion to conservative principles on issues like gay marriage and abortion. Mike Huckabee will now come in for similar criticism and questions will be raised about what his core values on these issues really are.

Voters don't like to be confused about what a candidate really believes, and they really don't like pandering.