There is a difference between the responsibility of governing a state and being able to brag about being a “no-compromise conservative” to one’s conservative base of supporters.
Your rigid Arkansas cohorts may learn that, some day.
I won’t apologize for being “rigid” if that means that I’m upset about Huck proposing driver’s licenses and in-state tuition to illegals, pushing through a smoking ban on private property in Arkansas, raising taxes (then lying about it on the campaign trail), and granting clemencies to over 1,000 convicted felons. Huckabee can blame his liberal policies on the democrats in Arkansas all he wants - but those things were HIS ideas and he pushed for them.