This is like Geraldo becoming the voice of reason for Fox...


During a relatively unnoticed speech in early November, former
presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said he found it "deplorable" and
"shameful" that his fellow Republicans were attacking the president
for even the most trivial or well-intentioned matters.

Appearing before the Hudson Union Society to discuss his forthcoming
book, "A Simple Christmas", Huckabee took umbrage with the criticism
levied by some conservatives over Obama's visit to Dover Air Force
base to see the coffins of returning soldiers.

When he [Barack Obama] was at Dover the other day, and went there to
pay respect for soldiers, I heard a lot of people on the Right say
"Aw, that's just a cheap photo-op." No, I think it was the
Commander-in-Chief of our military paying respect to a dead soldier,
and I'm grateful that he did that, and I was proud of him for doing
that. And I think we all -- as Americans -- should give him credit for
doing that.

He continued:

When he and Michele hosted the tricker-treaters on Halloween, quit
finding something wrong with that. Say "Good, I'm glad that he and the
First Lady are treating children to an experience at the White House."
And I just find it deplorable that some people on my end of the aisle
want to find everything wrong and nothing right about the man as a
man.

The underlying point, Huckabee concluded, was that knee-jerk criticism
to the president was counter-productive to civil debate. "I hated it
when people did that to George Bush," he said. "They couldn't even
laugh at the man's jokes they found something wrong with everything
and if we do that to Barack Obama, then shame on us, shame on us. No
wonder our country is so divided when that happens."

The remarks are fairly vintage Huckabee -- who, for all the firebrand
conservative talking points he espouses, has maintained a image and
reputation for Southern amiability. It also seems likely to spur even
greater anger at his politics among the die-hard conservatives who
regarded him with suspicion in 2008. As the conservative site GOP12 --
which first posted on the exchange -- pointed out, Huckabee's remarks
came one day after Rush Limbaugh appeared on Fox News Sunday, during
which he criticized Obama for his trip to Dover.