1) Newt Gingrich, both because of all the negative baggage he would bring to a presidential run and because he’s now come out and said so.  C’mon, nobody really believed he’d throw his hat in the ring, did they?

annnnnnnd

2) Mike Huckabee - because (a) he was never, is not, and never will be a series presidential candidate; (b) he’s much better suited to a senate run against Mark Pryor; and (3) this:

On Iran, he said Bush blew a chance to improve relations right after the 2001 terrorist attacks and that the United States should be talking to Iran today.

“When we first invaded Afghanistan, Iran helped, especially in dealings with their ally, the Northern Alliance,” he said. “They wanted to join us in fighting al Qaida. …The CIA and State Department supported a partnership. Some in the White House and beyond did not. And when President Bush included Iran in the axis of evil, everything went downhill pretty fast.”

Even with today’s sour relations, he said the United States should talk to Iran and use the promise of better relations and increased trade as well as the threat of economic isolation to persuade the country to abandon its nuclear program.

“The Administration has quite properly said it will not take the military option off the table. But if we don’t put some other options on the table, eventually the military option becomes the only viable one. Right now we’re proceeding down only one track,” he said.

He all but echoed Democrat Barack Obama in opening the door to strike al Qaida in Pakistan even without that government’s approval, saying the Bush Administration has a “muddle of policy” there.

LORD knows there’s plenty of room for criticizing the Bushies’ conduct of the War Against Islamic Fundamentalism.  But echoing the Democrats in general and Generalissimo Obama in particular on appeasing the principle enemy and attacking a critical ally isn’t criticism of the war’s conduct, but of whether we should be fighting it at all, and reveals Huckabee to be an unserious, feckless pol willing to endanger the lives of millions of Americans just to “stand out” from his primary rivals and ape media whores like John McCain (who did not win in 2000, BTW, and never “mavericked” on national security).

This speech ought to permanently disqualify Huckabee from consideration for any office that has any influence over U.S. foreign policy ever again.