‘This Is Who Mike Huckabee Is’

Mike Huckabee is far removed from where he stood this summer: in single digits in Iowa polls and barely registering nationally. Now, less than a month before the caucuses, he leads in Iowa and is in second place in many national polls. A Baptist minister, Huckabee has had his rise credited to his popularity with social conservatives. At home in Little Rock last week, Huckabee spoke by phone with NEWSWEEK's Holly Bailey about the intense focus on his faith—and why he wishes he could talk about something else.

Bailey: You have said you are tired of answering questions about your religion.
Huckabee: It's not that I mind it. But when people think I am a one-dimensional person, I realize they haven't done their homework on me. They've listened to someone else's sound bites. I've been a governor for 10 years, and to have the résumé I've built over that time on education, health care, transportation, the environment and jobs … all that stuff is important and says a lot about what kind of governor I was and what kind of president I would be. It seems like people sometimes overlook that, in favor of plowing the same ground again and again on religious questions.

Aren't you inviting those questions? You've made your faith a central part of your campaign. Your latest ad flashes the words CHRISTIAN LEADER.
There's one slide in that ad that says CHRISTIAN LEADER, which is descriptive. There's another slide that [quotes Time magazine saying] ONE OF AMERICA'S BEST GOVERNORS. How come nobody asks me about that? It's perfectly fair to ask, "What did you mean by [Christian leader]?" because some people have suggested there was something being written into it, but there wasn't.

So "Christian leader" wasn't an attempt to appeal to social conservatives who may have problems with Mitt Romney's faith?
Absolutely not. It was simply a description of my pilgrim job, a Christian leader in a church in a denomination. This is who Mike Huckabee is, where he comes from. It was intended as an introductory ad.

How do you address the concerns of nonbelievers who might have worries about a pastor in the White House?
It would be a pretty sad world that there would be enough religious bigotry that would exclude someone from consideration of public office because of their vocation as a pastor. If I had stepped out of the pulpit last Sunday and said, "I think I'm going to run for president," yeah, then definitely it would be a real issue to drill into. But when I come to the stage with more executive experience running a government than anybody else running for president on the Democrat or Republican side, it takes that off the table. Nobody goes into the depth of a person's vocation quite like this. Again, I don't mind, because if they really take an honest assessment, I think they will say: "Hey, this is interesting. You had a chance to see human life at a level few people ever see it, and it really makes you a deeper and more thoughtful person. You have experiences in administration and dealing with human relationships and understanding the nature of people. It doesn't make you less tolerant, it makes you more tolerant."

You refused this week to talk about Mormonism. Is there a reason you won't talk about it? Is Mormonism a cult, as some evangelicals have suggested?
First of all, I don't think it's appropriate for me to start evaluating other religions. If I answer that question, I'm going to be asked about every religion out there, and then I am playing to the very thing that I am seeking to avoid. The more I answer these questions, the more people want to say, "Ah, you describe yourself as a theologian," or "Oh, you're the one who is setting yourself up as a judge of religions." I am damned if I do; I am damned if I don't. I am happy to talk about my religion, but I don't think it's appropriate for me to talk about somebody else's, and part of that is out of conviction. Until I have mastered the art of living my faith, I'm not going to evaluate somebody else's. Our church is very different in that we don't ever focus on that. The motto of the church is taking Jesus as he is to people as they are. So it's really more about: get your own life figured out first, and then don't try to judge and fix somebody else quite yet.