Huckabee Wins Kansas Caucus

Washington Post ^ | 2/9/08 | Michael D. Shear

[Perdogg]

They now can start a “Draft Huck” campaign for a third party since the other people they wanted to run under a third party have endorsed McCain.

A week ago, they were accusing Huck of being in it for McCain.

[Biblebelter]

What exactly is Brownback’s endorsement worth in his home state anyway? I guess the endorsement was a good thing to have without it that Keating Five Guy might have been looking at Ron Paul’s you know what. I smell protest vote in the heartland.

[Hugin]

Good point. It’s also worth noting that in AR the legislature can override a veto by a simple majority vote. So anything they pass they just need to vote on a second time if the governor vetoes it. So Huck had no real power to block Democrat taxing except persuation.

I really fail to understand the depth of vitriol against Huckabee.

[Greg F]

I smell protest vote in the heartland.

________________________________________

Let’s hope the protest vote gets on a roll.

[WildcatClan]

Huckabee doesn’t have Romney capital, holdings nor near as an impressive portfolio. If you have enough money you can get a few pundits to refer to you as conservative. Had Romney stayed in the race this would have been a lot tougher for McCain.

[brydic1]

Protest Vote. The only way to vote against McCain is to vote for Huckabee. I urge all conservatives to vote for Huckabee and deny the delegates that McCain needs to win. It is very unlikely that Huckabee can win the number of delegates to win outright but it quite possible that he can deny McCain the necessary delegates and it will throw the republican convention wide open. Maybe we could get a real conservative at that point. Not likely but surely possible.

[Nonstatist]

but disdain Huckabee.

Thats because hes a phony populist. Some people like yourself go in for that kind of thing, but its not conservatism. It has no currency outside of the Old South.

[Greg F]

If you have enough money you can get a few pundits to refer to you as conservative.
_______________________________

Romney spread around a lot of money. On the Huck website, in responses, it talked about $500,000 in giving by Romney to one of the organizations that ranked Huck poorly in one of their “analysis” type rankings.

[Biblebelter]

Huckabee is such a political story. First it looks like that takes out Thompson for Romney in South Carolina. Then it looks like he takes out Romney for McCain on Super Tuesday and will be rewarded with the VP. McCain makes it clear that that ain’t going happen. So he is wandering around the state of Kansas drawing bigger crowds than that Keating Five guy and everyone is thinking this guy is crazy doesn’t he know he is through. So he becomes a protest candidate and just keeps the spotlight on what McCain negatives not whatever McCain might try to spin as positives. McCain should have never slammed that VP door in Huck’s face. That was not good politics, and Huck is going to make that very clear.

[Greg F]

Fantastic! I didn’t know McCain said he wouldn’t take Huck as VP. That is stupid on the part of McCain and great for the prospect of a chaotic contested convention. Huck’s not a soft politician. Do you have a link or some way to find what McCain said?

[Reagan79]

Yeah, I’d like to hear some more about what McCain said about Huck and VP slot.

GO HUCKABEE - Keep Going!

[WildcatClan]

Winning the South is paramount for a Republican. I think the Huckster has a better shot than McCain. Huckabee can win every state Bush won, with the exception of Ohio. Of course McCain is going to have the same problem in Ohio and he might put a few Southern states in play for the Dems. McCain is only going to get so far singing the WOT and Iraq war tune. We have won the war in Iraq, it’s time to start winding it down. I think we need to keep a strategic foothold there in case Iran goes of the rails. Other than that, McCain isn’t going to have a great deal to talk about. Huckabee will take the illegal immigration ball and run with it, McCain is stubborn and will not. Illegal immigration is the only winning card the GOP has to play and they better play it well and often.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

The new dynamic is this:

The Republican Party leadership are trying to disenfranchise the voters of more than 20 states.

This isn't about Huckabee anymore.

This is about Republicans who haven't voted flying into a rage about being cheated out of a say in the nomination.

They are really fired up that party leaders are trying to coronate McCain without letting everyone vote.

Republican Party leaders are scared to death of an outsider they can't control becoming President.

This is more than rage at McCain. This is a deep anger about being cheated by a rigged system.

[ScratInTheHat]

If he pulls this election out of the shithole it will be great.

I don’t think much of the Huckster but McCain is my worst nightmare.

[Jessarah]

Maybe we could get a real conservative at that point.

But who? Who is that real conservative that we would get?

[RKB-AFG]

Yeah, Nixon and Reagan were from California, Ford was never elected, the rest were from the South.

[Biblebelter]

McCain has not publicly said that but you can only read all threads that were posted yesterday about what McCain said he was looking for in a Vice President. It was clear, it was not Huckabee. McCain is a proud and arrogant man who is a Washington insider. He wanted to make it clear and dispell all the talk that Huckabee was taking out Romney in the South for McCain and a deal had been cut. He also resented the fact that anyone would suggest that he needed Huckabee to win the nomination and somehow he could not have gotten the nomination without what appeared as Huckabee’s help. That said you can say whatever bad you want about Huckabee but you cannot call him a Washington insider, and that makes him and McCain polar opposites. McCain never thought much of Huckabee review the tapes of the debates it was clear the arrogance of McCain tabbed Huckabee as a some kind of rube which he may be but he might be a Rube that has McCain by the you know what.

[RKB-AFG]

One of the further signs of the crack-up of the conservative movement is the number of elite talking heads who fell for Romney but disdain Huckabee.

EXACTLY!

[Tennessee Nana]

I wish all these so called Republican leaders would just leave the Republican candidates alone and let them win or lose on their own

Duncan was shut out...how would he have done ???

Duncan was the # 1 spokesman for conservatives...

FRed was ignored...He had great organization and should have done better...

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Problem is that Huckabee is a regional candidate at best that can't transcend his core base of naive evangelicals.

If he's nominated, he'll win the Bible Belt and maybe IA and that's that. He can't get the independents or fiscal conservative libertarians to vote for him.

Huckabee ran for President on a lark with no money or organization. He is and has always been a liberal media fabrication, designed to split the GOP and take out true conservatives such as Hunter, Tancredo, Paul, and Thompson. Once he loses in the general or is not picked for VP, the media and Dems are going to drop him and won't have anything to do with him.