Mike Huckabee’s penchant for populist rhetoric will eventually hit a wall. Nationwide, too many Republicans simply won’t buy it. Out of Iowa, surf’s up! Huckabee is riding the wave on a cross of gold.

Today, Frank Rich notes Huckabee’s line of attack

Among the Republican candidates, Mr. Huckabee is also as culturally un-Bush as you can get. He constantly reminds voters that he did not go to an Ivy League school and that his plain values derived from a bona fide blue-collar upbringing, as opposed to, say, clearing brush on a vacation “ranch” bought with oil money attained with family connections. “People are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them more of the guy they work with rather than the guy that laid them off,” he told Mr. Leno, in a nifty reminder of Mr. Romney’s corporate history as a Bush-style, Harvard-minted M.B.A.

Just because you had a “blue-collar upbringing” doesn’t mean you don’t aspire to own the store (or the plant, or the restaurant, or the ____________). This differing life view is one of the fundamental differences between your typical Republican and your run-of-the-mill Democrat - Republicans believe everyone can improve their lot if they truly want to do so. Huckabee’s rhetoric belies a rather peculiar Democrat viewpoint, better suited for another party’s primary.

Rich then takes the Republican “establishment” to task for opposing Huckabee

No wonder the long list of party mandarins eager to take down Mr. Huckabee includes Rush Limbaugh, Robert Novak, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and National Review.

Be sure to add to that list any real fiscal, small government conservative you can find. Rich needs to improve his straw man construction techniques - this one fell apart before the ink dried on the page.

The “party mandarins” are largely unhappy with George W. Bush’s fiscally wild policies - they are not in league with them. As such, there is a significant difference between 2008 and 1980. History shows that Ronald Reagan was actually opposed by the Nelson Rockefeller, northeastern Republican establishment for his conservative, small government views. In contrast, Mike Huckabee is opposed in 2008 by conservatives for his liberal rhetoric, identity politics, and tax raising record. The “party mandarines” noted here - the Wall Street Journal, Robert Novak, National Review and Rush Limbaugh - are all Reaganites and fiscal conservatives.

Huckabee is an incomplete model. Ronald Reagan rose as an agent of change, distrustful of a strong central government, yet able to garner evangelical support without sacrificing his other conservative ideals. Mike Huckabee is not that. In fact, in indisputable and important ways, he is the antithesis of the conservative Republicanism brought on by Ronald Reagan. A return to the Republican Party’s right ideals cannot be accomplished with a Mike Huckabee candidacy.