The GOP will not use social issues as their platform in the 2012 election - their strategy in the last cycle was divide and conquer along economic lines, and they won't deviate substantially. The key to understanding the GOP is understanding that the party's ideology is built on a foundation of individualism and they are effective when they can use the political climate to get people voting primarily based on their self-interest (leaving aside the question of whether GOP policies are in the interest of the middle and working classes since the GOP has been very effective at convincing large voting blocks that this is indeed the case). The GOP has been effective when they are able to pit various loosely defined segments of the middle class against each other by defining everything from teachers to sanitation workers as special interests. Economic issues are simply the most effective tools for this approach in the current climate, and the GOP will use them.
Huckabee has a snowball's chance in hell of winning a GOP primary because poor Mike is way right of electability in key swing states like Ohio and Indiana. The candidate needs to be someone with economic credentials, enough bombast and first principles to satisfy the Tea Party wing, and enough lip service to social issues to keep social conservatives in the fold. This will be difficult to find, but there are a number of strong contenders.
