One thing I look for in my presidential candidates is the ability to keep up with the times, at least on important issues or something relating to their campaign. That’s one of the many reasons why I’m absolutely positive I will never support Mike Huckabee’s candidacy.

Take the NIE, for example. It’s perhaps the biggest news of the week, and regards our national security and a nuclear threat. Most people who have regular jobs had heard about it by the next day. Mike Huckabee, a man running for the highest office in the land? Not so much.

Now there’s this. Today Huckabee released his immigration plan which, on face value, looks pretty thorough. Of course, based on his past and even current statements, it’s unbelievable. But then you get to this:

Propose to provide all illegal immigrants a 120-day window to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and leave the country.

INS? Lonewhacko points out that the agency hasn’t existed for over four years.

The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was a part of the United States Department of Justice and handled legal and illegal immigration and naturalization. It ceased to exist on March 1, 2003.

So it seems whoever drew this plan up, didn’t actually realize he/she was giving responsibilities to non-existent government agencies. Not. Promising.

I’ll leave you with this.

Janet Huckabee also admitted she is “very disappointed” in the National Right to Life’s decision to endorse Thompson over her husband. “Mike has been a true Right to Life person,” she said. “He’s marched in the Right to Life parades for 13 years. He’s just been a big supporter pro-life legislation, and it was disappointing to him.”

“God’s a big God,” Huckabee continued. “If he wants us to continue to go and to fight the giants, we’ll do that. You remember Jesus feeding the 5,000 with two fishes and five loaves. So, we’re multiplying our money. Every dollar spends like a thousand and every prayer we get is like a million bucks.”

Huck goes on:

STUDENT: Recent polls show you surging… What do you attribute this surge to?

HUCKABEE: There’s only one explanation for it, and it’s not a human one. It’s the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people. (Applause) That’s the only way that our campaign can be doing what it’s doing. And I’m not being facetious nor am I trying to be trite. There literally are thousands of people across this country who are praying that a little will become much, and it has. And it defies all explanation, it has confounded the pundits. And I’m enjoying every minute of them trying to figure it out, and until they look at it, from a, just experience beyond human, they’ll never figure it out. And it’s probably just as well. That’s honestly why it’s happening.

Wow. Jim Geraghty:

Wow. Huckabee’s been endorsed by both Chuck Norris AND Jesus Christ.

Dang. Here I was looking at poll numbers, advertising, and endorsements, when I should have been detailing and quantifying the “not human” factor in the race…

Readers can draw their own conclusions on Huckabee’s meaning. As you probably can guess, this rubs me the wrong way. If Huckabee’s rise in the polls is the result of a factor that is not human, how about the declining poll numbers of his rivals?

It reminds me of a comedian’s joke about football players who point to the sky and thank God and/or Jesus when they score a touchdown. Nobody ever hears a defender say, “well, I thought I had him covered pretty well, but then Jesus got in my way.”