First Obama and now this. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will visit Birmingham this weekend. This Feb. 5 primary thing Alabama invented seems to be paying off.

And what do both candidates have in common?

Both won praise in a Mark Kelly column one week before they won the Iowa caucuses (but not much since then, though).

The once-Southern Baptist preacher will have the home-field advantage at Samford University Saturday afternoon. He will speak there at 4:30. The event is open to the public.

So far this campaign season, Huckabee has found a following among Christian conservatives turned off by some of the other candidates for various reasons.

Mitt Romney: Mormon, governor of Massachusetts (the Kennedy state), used to be O.K. with abortion and gays.

John McCain: Radical conservative? No such thing.

Rudolph Giuliani: Hates guns. Likes abortion, gays. Divorced and divorced again. Cross-dresses.

Fred Thompson: Quitter.

In contrast, Huckabee’s optimism could sell well, even among some liberals. He’s the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with, if Baptists drank beer.

On the flip side …

Huckabee advocates the Fair Tax, which should be called the Screw the Poor and Turn America into Alabama Tax. In short, it’s a sales tax. On everything. Huckabee wants to replace the IRS with a national sales tax on goods and services. As Alabama has shown by example, basing your revenue on a sales tax impacts the poor the hardest and leaves the government incredibly vulnerable to recessions. Although, it would be funny to see what the Department of Defense would do under proration like Alabama schools.

Also, as Arkansas governor, Huckabee had a rocky, often bizarre relationship with the media.

Also, believes Genesis is the way it really happened, talking snakes and all.

Also, compares abortion to the Holocaust.

But back on the plus side, took control of his weight problem.

Finally, there’s this thing we found on the Internet. Funny, but NSFW.