Mike Huckabee and Willie Horton

When Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas, several former victims petitioned Huckabee to block the release a convicted rapist Wayne Dumond. Hucklebee supported Dumond's release. In 1991, Dumond was freed and promptly went on to rape and murder two women.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/14/huckabee_could_face_hurdles_from_the_past/

As Huckabee rises in the polls, these kind of skeletons are going to continue to rattle out of his closet. It does remind me of another criminal and another presidential contender, William Horton and Michael Dukakis. While as Massachusetts governor, Horton was paroled, although Dukakis had not intervened . Horton then went on to rape a Maryland woman. The incident with its racial undertones helped sink Dukakis' 1988 presidential ambitions. George H. W. Bush invoked the case repeatedly in campaign speeches. Bush's campaign manager Lee Atwater predicted that "by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name." Atwater called him "Willie" because he hoped to get more racial mileage. Two colleagues of Atwater at the time was Karl Rove and our current president. It will be ironic that this twenty year old playbook may help elect a democratic president.

My view is that these kind of mistakes by a political executive are inevitable. However, it is telling to me how a politican responds when such charges are brought to light. The best response both politically and ethically is to tell the complete truth, disclose all documents and other facts that shed light on the issue, admit errors in judgment, and then try to move on. The worst approach is to dissemble, stonewall, and rationalize. Such politicans set themselves up to die a death of a thousand cuts, as one revelation after another comes out. This may be Hucklebee's fate.

I attribute Huckabee's rise in the polls to a perception that he is tolerant and authentic, and that he doesn't march to the same nativist drumbeat as does Romney and Giulliani. That he is a Baptist, a Christian leader, as he describes himself, no doubt attracts evangelicals who dread a Mormon president. The shift in focus from world affairs-- the war in Iraq-- to domestic cares such as the economy also helps help relative to others who have more international experience. Of course, have a lot of foreign experience such as Cheney doesn't guarantee good judgment.

Here are readers reactions from The Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/04/documents-expose-huckabee_n_75362.html