Every politician has things in their past that can and will be used by their rivals and critics in an effort to bring them down. The smart ones frankly assess those gotchas and start formulating responses right away.

The dumb ones get caught flat-footed.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, surging in Iowa polls in the Republican presidential race, wrote on a questionnaire while running for U.S. Senate in 1992 that homosexuality is "aberrant" and "sinful."

"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk," Huckabee wrote in the questionnaire for The Associated Press, which reported the answer on Saturday.

This is the kind of stuff you want to get out early and innoculate yourself--not what you want to come out a month before the primary. It follows quickly on the heels of Huckabee's deer-in-the-headlights imitation when asked about the NIE on Iran.

The man-who-would-be-our-leader blamed his staff for his ignorance.

He may be the Jesus party nominee already, but he's in way over his head for presidential politics.