'Don't Demonize Obama," Says Huckabee

Failed Republican presidential nominee Mike Huckabee told North Carolina Republicans at their state convention yesterday that they need to recognize the historic accomplishment of Barack Obama and to steer around any urge to "demonize" him. That would seriously misfire, Huckabee warned them. (Much more detail on Huckabee's speech here.)

I know a Republican woman who worked tirelessly for Ronald Reagan in the NC primary of 1976, who voted for Huckabee in the primary this year, and who now says she'll vote for Barack Obama, "unless he picks Hillary Clinton for vice president. Or Jim Webb."

Going from Huckabee to Obama might not make any sense to you, and I won't even try to explain that straddle ('cause I wouldn't exactly know where to start, either), but I'm impressed by her new outspoken passion for Obama (without entirely understanding it). She's going on 80 years old and hasn't voted for a Democrat in decades. She told us that she watched Obama's victory speech last Tuesday night and stood up out of bed and applauded when he finished ... all by herself in an empty house.

An in-law of hers has been e-mailing her the Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim-agent messages, and she's asked that the forwarding stop. "It's all lies, and I don't appreciate lying."

She's exactly what the Republican Party has worried about all along with Obama as the presidential nominee ... that he is going to be attractive to a wide (and surprising) range of registered Republicans. (Unless, of course, he chooses Hillary or Jim Webb as his running mate.)