Obviously, he is testing the waters. Apparently he has perceived that the Republican party may be shifting just a bit to the left of Bush the Dud II, hence the open criticism of Bubdub in the news release. What I've read about him I like. At first, I thought he was a bit of an opportunist. He ran for Lieutenant Governor and was soundly defeated, so he bided his time and waited until Clinton went to the White House. When Jim Guy Tucker, the Lieutenant Governor who had defeated him, became Governor to serve out Clinton's term, Huckabee waited until the night before the deadline to file, and, through a constitutional glitch, became Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas. When Tucker had to resign because of scandal, Huckabee became governor without ever having been elected. In the year or so that he had left in office to prove himself, he did just that, basically falling back to the strategy that made Clinton so popular and successful as governor. He built his strength around a bi-partisan coalition by supporting some of the most successful social programs popular with Democrats and balancing some of the social issues important to conservative Republicans.
I really like his consistent pro-life position. He's against abortion rights and he is opposed to the death penalty as well. His philosophy of government also demonstrates his strong belief in the Biblical principle that "to whom much is given, much is required." He has expanded on Clinton's practice of using the state government as the primary agent against poverty, using resources from Arkansas' business base. Ironically, the Democrats and moderates have warmed up to him. It is the religious right wing who seem to be his loudest opposition. The hypocrisy of their alleged "pro-life" position, combined with their desire to see the wealthy prosper at the expense of the poor and middle class leads them to dislike anyone, Republican, Democrat or Independent, who doesn't do things exactly their way. On top of all of that, he attends a CBF-affiliated church in Little Rock.
I could support Huckabee's candidacy, if his political position is accurately represented by his governorship of Arkansas. Unfortunately, I don't think he stands a snowball's chance on a hot stove of coming close to the Republican nomination. For one thing, outside of Arkansas, hardly anyone knows who he is. Also, I don't think he can compete against McKain's war chest or early poll numbers. Raising the money necessary to win the party nomination is a key factor. There are hints that McKain's poll numbers and size of his war chest were the reasons Jeb decided not to toss his hat into the ring--that and the fact that even in the Fox polls he couldn't get a national poll number in double figures. At any rate, the Democrat will have the inside track in '08, especially if gasoline prices continue to soar, there is no apparent end to the American occupation of Iraq, and he has to spend what little political capital he has left on his Supreme Court nominee.