MILWAUKEE -- Goodbye Mike Huckabee. After coming in second place behind John McCain in the Republican South Carolina primary over the weekend, it looks like the end is near for the former governor of Arkansas. He has now only won Iowa. He was unable to carry a state full of evangelical Christians (South Carolina), and as salon.com reported (www.salon.com/politics/war_room), things are not looking good for him in Florida either.

My only response is good riddance. Throughout this current political season, I found it impossible to take Huckabee seriously. He does not believe in evolution. He wanted to amend the Constitution to ban abortion and gay marriage. He defended the confederate flag while campaigning in South Carolina (he claimed states rights), and from everything I read, his fair tax (www.motherjones.com/news/update/2007/12/huckabee-fair-tax-fallacies.html) proposal is ludicrous at best. This is a man who, when the NIE report came out saying Iran was not a nuclear threat, stated he had never heard of the report until a reporter asked him about it.

Now, I concede, his southern drawl is charming and he really does seem like a nice, affable fellow, someone who is a conservative but not angry. However, just because he is a nice man does not mean he should be considered for our nation’s highest office. Hell, George W. Bush seemed like a nice man, too, and we see how that turned out.

After Florida comes Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, a day with 22 primaries including California and New York. Huckabee will be unable to carry these states because of the more moderate Republicans who live there, with whom he does not poll well. .

Granted, it was nice while it lasted for Huckabee, but I think I hear his swan song playing in the background. I mean, did you really expect this country to elect a man who does not believe in evolution? I thought so.