Romney Extols Pluralism; Huckabee Claims God is Push-Polling
for Him  Mitt Romney’s speech today reminding Americans of the
lofty founding ideals of civic republicanism and religious
liberty coincides with Mike Huckabee’s statement that God is the
reason for his rise in the polls.  A former BYU political
science professor who now blogs for AOL’s Political Machine has
commented on Mike Huckabee’s view, pointing out that Huckabee
shares a certain trait with Bush II and Carter:  It’s a brand of
Christianity that draws heavily on notions of divine election
and at its core contains a literal view of predestination. This
is relatively harmless when taken in a kind of hazy way like
Clinton, for example. But when you buy into divine election and
predestination literally, and end up in the White House, it’s
hard not to see anything you do as Divine will.  When Huckabee
says there is only one explanation for his rise in the polls, he
means that literally. When you literally believe in
predestination, there is only one