Huckabee Aims to Strike Balance

As he looks beyond South Carolina, Mike Huckabee strives to balance his evangelicalism with a more secular image, hoping to win support across the spectrum, the New York Times reports. Though a Christian vote even bigger than Iowa's could carry him in today's primary, the ex-preacher will soon face voters less interested in conservative Christian ideas.

To that end, his ability to paint Southern Baptist doctrine in a fairly liberal light could be a boon. In defending the ideas against criticism, “he is like Houdini,” said the president of one Christian group. But he’ll need to be careful: his comment that the Constitution should be “in God’s standards” raised questions about whether he thought the document ungodly.