My former employer, Duncan Hunter, who was very well received in the blogosphere, despite not doing so well in the primaries, has endorsed Mike Huckabee. Some people are wondering why he chose Huckabee. For example, my buddy SarahK and I had an instant messenger conversation that went like so, last night (This has been edited a bit and she gave me permission to post),

SarahK: DUDE.

John Hawkins: Hey yo.

SarahK: What in the world is Hunter THINKING endorsing Huckabee?

John Hawkins: They're all pretty awful. Trying to decide which candidate to endorse between these 4 guys is like picking what type of animal crap you'd like to shovel at the circus tomorrow. Why not Huckabee?

SarahK: Duncan Hunter = tough on immigration. Huckabee = people against illegal immigration hate brown people.

SarahK: Oh, well if Huckabee says he'll be tough on illegal immigration, as long as he signed a pledge, I'm sure he's trustworthy.

John Hawkins: Well, all 4 of them had exactly the same position in 2006. Huckabee has a tough on illegal immigration plan now and he is probably more similar to Duncan on trade than the other guys. On foreign policy, Huckabee comes across as a ditz, but Dunc probably figured his heart was in the right place.

John Hawkins: Yes, it's going to be a long ugly year.

SarahK: I'm going to cry a lot.

PS: Here's Duncan's statement,

”I got to know Governor Hukcabee well on the campaign trail…Of the remaining candidates I feel that he is strongly committed to strengthening national defense, constructing the border fence and meeting the challenge of China’s emergence as a military superpower…

Mike Huckabee is a man of outstanding character and integrity. I saw that character over the last year of campaigning and was greatly impressed. The other Republican candidates have many strengths and I wish them all well. My personal choice is Mike Huckabee."

Let me add to that a bit.

Huckabee is anti-amnesty, and obviously Duncan is as well. Moreover, Duncan cares a great deal about trade issues and he and Huckabee are much closer together on that issue than the other candidates. Foreign policy wise, truthfully, there isn't much difference between any of the remaining candidates, although admittedly, Huckabee comes across as a little spacy on that issue. Additionally, one thing a lot of people didn't realize is that Duncan was one of the most socially conservative candidates in the race, which was probably another point for Huckabee.

So, when you put it all together and consider the weakness of the field as a whole, I can certainly understand why Duncan endorsed Huckabee.