A little heavenly help for Huckabee

CONCORD, N.H.

TODAY, gentle reader, events in the political world require us to turn our attention to the theological realm to probe this momentous question: Is heaven helping Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign?

Asked recently by a student at Liberty University, the conservative Baptist school, about what he attributed his surge in the polls to, Huckabee replied:

"There is only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people. And that's the only way that our campaign could be doing what it's doing. And I'm not being facetious . . . There literally are thousands of people across this country who are praying that a little will become much and it has."

Until confounded pundits "look at it from a[n] . . . experience beyond human, they'll never figure it out," he added. "And that's probably just as well."

Now, given God's propensity for working in mysterious ways and Jesus's penchant for puzzling parables, divine intent can be a difficult thing to discern.

Could it be that Sunday's snowstorm was a celestial attempt to keep Granite Staters indoors, where, to relieve their boredom, they might well have tuned into "Meet the Press," there to see Mitt Romney skittering about like a waterbug in a windstorm as he tried to explain his various changed positions? If so, was that the Lord's way of turning New Hampshire Republicans back toward straight-talking John McCain, the better to deprive Romney of an essential backyard victory, thereby weakening him and paving the way for Huckabee to prevail in conservative South Carolina on Jan. 19?

Did Jesus subtly inflate Rudy Giuliani's autumn polling numbers to lure him fully into the promised land of the first primary state, knowing that Rudy's incessant self-celebratory boasting about his New York City record would eventually put off the good and modest burghers of New Hampshire, thereby setting him up for a campaign-crippling fall from Granite State grace?

It's all eminently possible, certainly. And yet, if Father or Son really wanted to help Huckabee, couldn't they find a more direct way? God might have interrupted "Meet the Press," temporarily turned Tim Russert into a pillar of salt, and admonished Mitt thusly: "Your habitual hair-splitting is an abomination unto my ears. Go forth and flip-flop no more."

Or Jesus could have shimmered onto the TV screen after Huckabee's "Christian Leader" TV ad and intoned: "I'm Jesus Christ, and I approve this message."

So in search of more definitive evidence, last week I hastened to New Hampshire for a Huckabee event.

And for a moment I couldn't believe my eyes. Perched at the lectern was a man who, like Lazarus, seemed raised from the very dead. A few feet away stood a beatific bearded figure who fairly radiated inner power, a man who bore a passing resemblance to the Jesus of artist Lorenzo Lotto's loving brush.

Alas, the first turned out only to be Ed Rollins, the Reagan-era politico, back for another try at political immortality. And the bearded man was simply Chuck Norris. Now, as action stars go, Chuck seems like a capital fellow, both modest and friendly. Still, his endorsement signifies a good deal less than if God had sent his only begotten son to Concord to bless Huckabee.

But I did have an opportunity to ask the candidate about his comment at Liberty University.

"Well, I think it's easy to misunderstand," he responded. "You can try to speak in spiritual terms to folks who aren't dialed in, and it's sort of like being at the UN without a headset, so I'm going to be very careful. I'm not trying to say that God is registered to vote in any of the early primary states. . . I'm simply saying there is no explanation that I can offer" for his own surge.

Reminded that he had spoken of something beyond human experience, Huckabee replied: "Well, I think people do pray. I think it makes me a better person when we do. It gives me, I think, strength and encouragement. I wouldn't deny that one bit."

So here's my take.

Neither God nor Jesus is likely to endorse in the primary season.

As Harvard's Reverend Professor Peter Gomes says, "I would like to think that God has a slightly larger interest than advancing Mr. Huckabee's interest in the presidential race."

Still, Huckabee does seem to think that he's getting some heavenly help - and he obviously wouldn't mind having the faithful think that as well.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.