That’s my reading of Huckabee’s action as well. He is supposed to have a degree in theology and he feigns knowing nothing about Mormonism? I just don’t buy the “innocent question” explanation for bringing up the canard about Satan... It was brought up intentionally...”wink, wink, nudge, nudge”. Had Romney spread disinformation about Baptists using the form of an “innocent question” you can bet there’d be plenty of brimstone spewed about.
George Will called it the Nixonian dodge - "It would be wrong to bring up X" - thereby bringing up X while pretending to decry its introduction. Huckster is using old campaign tricks to keep an unseemly issue alive.
Since the secularist journalists are clueless dolts, they wouldn't think to ask why Huckster is so innocently unknowledgable about Mormonism, when he's a SBC preacher, and the 1998 Southern Baptist convention was *in Salt Lake City* they preached the conversion of Mormons to Baptists.
In 1998, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) descended on Salt Lake City for their annual meeting. If you think that's an unusual choice, you'd be right. The number of SBC members in Utah is negligible, but the message would be unmistakable. In spite of nearly identical political and social mores, the SBC disdained association with Latter-day Saints in Jerry Falwell's abortive Moral Majority. As is custom for such annual meetings, there is a massive proselyting effort in the environs of the city, but for Salt Lake, the SBC produced a 50 minute video entitled, "the Mormon Puzzle" and distributed to ALL 40,000 Baptist congregations sending delegates to the meeting. In addition, the SBC also printed over 12,000 copies of "Mormonism Unmasked" The materials characterized Mormonism as a dangerous cult (a dehumanizing Evangelical perjorative) and a major threat to SBC interests. However it mainly instructed "messengers" on how to attack the beliefs of their Mormon targets. There was little doubt that this provocative action by the SBC was designed to be a showdown--the mainstream press sent its largest contingent ever to the Salt Lake City annual meeting, hoping for open warfare. In the end, Mormon church leadership simply encouraged its members to be courteous to their Baptist brethren and the story evaporated.
Now here is the kicker: Huckabee attended and gave a major speech at the 1998 Southern Baptist Pastor's Conference held in Salt Lake City in conjunction with their National Convention.
Source: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/1998/jun/08/huckabee-us-gave-religion/
He cannot ask "innocently" nor feign not knowing what the SBC thinks of Mormonism. He was there.