Huckabee isn’t any big deal in national politics, but the anti-social conservatives keep trying to hold him up as representing Evangelical Christians, while they take everything else as their own.
He made a primary run in 2008 that didn’t go anywhere, and like Santorum he won a niche of anti-Romney Christians during an anti-Romney primary, he is not a significant or enduring political figure.
I totally agree with your take on Huck and Santorum’s campaigns…they both techinically got second place, but the only real challenger to McCain in 08 was Romney and the only real challenger to Romney in 12 was Newt - and the others just hung around til they “got second.”
But hey, try and tell that to the sweater vest crowd, and they go ballistic.