Dear Gov. Huckabee:

My name is Mike Minton. I know you don’t know me, and I doubt seriously that you’ve ever seen my blog, “Mr. Right Opinion,” although you don’t know what you are missing out on.

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your service to our country, as a pastor, a governor, as an aspirant to the presidency, and no doubt in many ways about which we may never even know.

However, despite all the good that you’ve done in your life, I feel compelled to tell you that, by staying in this presidential race, you are further dividing an already fractured Republican party. And, more importantly, by so doing, you are inadvertently making it more difficult to heal an already deeply divided nation.

Just earlier this week, we saw your former competitor, Rudy Giuliani, withdraw from his campaign and throw his support behind Sen. McCain; a move that will, without a doubt, put the senator in a superior position on “super-duper Tuesday.”

Mr. Huckabee, I can’t imagine that, in researching the backgrounds of your competitors and preparing for your campaign, you haven’t seen what John McCain is really all about.

Governor, you claim to be a conservative, and I have no doubt that you love America every bit as much as I. Well, sir, I am now asking you to demonstrate both of those attributes by putting an end to your candidacy.

This request has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not I agree with you on the issues on which you were running. The fact is that we now have two front-runners who truly have pretty diverse backgrounds, and two pretty different visions of where this country is going.

Senator McCain is undoubtedly a true American hero. I admire both his military and political service to America. However, Governor, he IS NOT the best option for either the Republican party, nor for the United States of America.

By remaining in a Primary which-and please pardon my bluntness-you simply cannot win, you are detracting votes from the other governor who otherwise could. And I am sure you, as a Christian and a patriot, are above staying in a presidential race merely to skew the results for one candidate or the other.

I realize that Gov. Romney has changed his position on abortion, but I am firmly convinced that he is sincere in his commitment to preserving innocent life. Sen. McCain, on the other hand, has been quoted as saying, “I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade….” Source: Ron Fournier, Associated Press Aug 24, 1999.

And while I know that Sen. McCain likes to say that he has been consistently pro-life, the fact is that he alluded to pro-lifers as, “the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance…” drawing parallels to the likes of Louis Farrakhan Source: Speech in Virginia Beach, VA Feb 28, 2000. So this means that Sen. McCain is either NOT pro-life, or that he is, in his own words, an agent of intolerance comparable to Louis Farrakhan.

Furthermore, Gov. Huckabee, it is a well-known fact Sen. McCain supports amnesty for illegal aliens. This is yet another area in which he has been, shall we say, less than honest. No matter what euphemism you may wish to put on it, McCain-Feingold is an amnesty bill. And, in fact, the senator has as an advisor one of former Mexican president Vicente Fox’s Cabinet members, Juan Hernandez.

Here is a quote from CNSnews.com: “’The fact that (McCain) would pick a person who has worked as a foreign government official is very troubling,’ Steven Camarota, director of research with the Center for Immigration Studies, told Cybercast News Service. ‘That person has taken an oath to a foreign government, and now (McCain) wants to make him an integral part of his campaign.’”

Gov. Romney has gone on the record as saying we must “Secure The Border, Implement An Enforceable Employer Verification System, Reject Amnesty, Punish Sanctuary Cities, Improve Interior Enforcement, and finally, Encourage Legal Immigration, if we are to restore Americans’ faith in the rule of law.”

Gov. Huckabee, you know that over the past two decades, Americans’ faith in the federal government’s willingness to stop illegal immigration has been decimated. That faith desperately needs restoration. I believe Gov. Romney can accomplish that. Sadly, I don’t think Sen. McCain is even interested in restoring that faith.

On another issue, Governor, Mitt Romney is strides ahead of Sen. McCain on economic issues. He has supported lower taxes, and has run businesses with budgets the size of the entire economies of some countries.

Sen. McCain, on the other hand, has not had the benefit of that type of experience. What’s more, the senator has been dishonest about his alleged fiscal conservatism. I have heard him say that he has ALWAYS supported lower taxes. However, he was one of a very few Republicans to vote AGAINST the Bush tax cuts.

For all of these reasons: social conservatism; fiscal conservatism; cohesion of the Republican party; and, most importantly, the betterment of America in general, I am asking you to gracefully drop out of the 2008 race. That will allow true conservatives like myself (and like you claim to be) to rally around a candidate whom we can trust to represent our values in the White House.

Again, thank you for your unselfish service to our country, and God Bless!

Sincerely,
Michael A. Minton