Given the poor record of our current government, I believe I could support almost any of the Republican candidates who are currently running on the grounds that they would be an improvement over what we currently have - except one. I cannot support Mike Huckabee in the primary season.

Here's why.

There are so many voices to be heard in this modern world of mass and instant communication that it is easy to be overwhelmed by information.

Who and what are we to believe? Sifting through this mass of contradictory data to find whatever kernel of truth may lie buried within is not easy.

One of the best tests of validity, in a personal sense, is when a person comes upon information about which the listener is familiar. How that information is handled and presented tells a lot about the trustworthiness of a source, and what the reporter may be doing with other material.

If you are in a room and hear a person say "yes," and you read in the paper the next day that the person said "no," then you know that the paper's writer is either uninformed and sloppy, or is a purposeful liar.

Unfortunately, I have had a similar experience with Huckabee.

Two weeks ago, Zev Chafets of The New York Times described an interview with the candidate. Here is what Chafets writes: "I asked Huckabee, who describes himself as the only Republican candidate with a degree in theology, if he considered Mormonism a cult or a religion. 'I think it's a religion,' he said. 'I really don't know much about it.' I was about to jot down this piece of boilerplate when Huckabee surprised me with a question of his own: 'Don't Mormons,' he asked in an innocent voice, 'believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?'"

Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister. He graduated magna cum laude from Ouachita Baptist University (a small Baptist college with a fairly good local reputation) before attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Now I have a little homework for you. Go online and look up what Baptist ministers say about Mormonism. Check the pages of a few theology seminaries and find the bios of instructors who specialize in "cults."

As part of your homework, go online, or to a bookstore, and see what Evangelicals have to say about Mormons. Now, see what Mormon sources have to say about Baptists and Evangelicals. The first search will be very easy, especially for a trained minister; the second will be difficult.

Huckabee said last Sunday on the CBS's "Face the Nation" that he was running to be president of the entire United States, not just the Christian community.

Really.

Is this why his ads in Iowa emphasized that Huckabee was the "Christian" leader, especially when the candidate ahead in the polls at the time was what? Not a Christian?

Some Evangelicals and their leaders seem much more concerned about Mormonism than would seem warranted. That Huckabee is unaware of this and maintains that, "I really don't know much about it," is simply not credible. He knows, and he knows what the people who say they won't vote for any Mormon think they know, and he seems willing to use their bigotry for his own advantage.

This is not a trait I want to see in a future president.

There is another problem.

The media has been generally silent about Huckabee's background and stands on issues when he was governor of the great state of Arkansas.

There are two reasons for this. First, the media likes to see a tight race. It builds ratings.

Second, most of the media want the Democrats to win the White House.

They will build up the Republican candidate they think is the easiest to bring down. Special interest groups do the same. The NEA in New Hampshire has given their endorsement to Huckabee. Does anyone really believe that they would vote for him in the general election?

E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post is greasing the skids by using the old propaganda ploy of blaming the opponent with what you are currently doing. Dionne writes, "If you had to bet, you'd wager that the Republican establishment will eventually crush Huckabee." But the Post is defending him… for now.

I have personal experience with both bigotry and propaganda. Huckabee doesn't pass the test.