Posted on 02/09/2008 9:35:50 PM PST by neverdem
If Mike Huckabee didn’t exist, John McCain would have had to invent him.
First, Mr. Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses, sending Mitt Romney into a tailspin that gave Senator McCain the opening he needed to win New Hampshire. Mr. Huckabee then took enough votes from Mr. Romney in South Carolina and Florida to allow Senator McCain to win both states with scant support from conservatives. Finally, by winning a string of Southern states on Feb. 5, Mr. Huckabee stole Mr. Romney’s last chance to convince anti-McCain Republicans to rally behind his candidacy. In states that Mr. Huckabee did not win, he still pulled more than enough voters from Mr. Romney to allow Senator McCain to pile up a string of victories that has left him as the all-but-certain Republican nominee.
But from this point forward, the former Arkansas governor becomes even more valuable to Senator McCain. More than 60 percent of the voters on Feb. 5 registered their support for someone other than Senator McCain. In order to consolidate those conservative Republicans behind him, Senator McCain will need to continue to shore up his “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution” message. But he also needs a platform from which to deliver that message and a foil against whom he can frame it. Mr. Huckabee provides him with both.
If Mr. Huckabee were to withdraw from the race, the media coverage of Senator McCain’s candidacy would shrivel as the cameras immediately turned their full attention to the Clinton-Obama brawl. Even though Senator McCain would travel to the remaining states on the primary calendar, few would spend much time watching his political shadow-boxing exhibition. But a series of contested primaries, even lopsided ones, would bring a much greater level of public interest in what he was saying and doing in each of...
(Excerpt) Read more at campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com ...
We all know Huckleberry was a stooge for McCain.
When John McCain sits at the table Mike Huckabee crawls under it.
Who cares. He torpedoed Flip, that’s good enough.
If Huckabee hadn't won Iowa and Romney did, Romney would have won NH (instead of McCain) and McCain would have then lost South Carolina and then Florida and McCain would be out.
Looks like Mitt got out too soon. There is still obviously a lot of discontent with McCain.
I think the thing that disadvantaged Mitt was having Rudy fail so badly in Florida. If he stayed in Super Tuesday, he would’ve pulled away enough votes from McCain for Romney to be competitive.
Everyone say what you will about the huck, but he has won two more primaries tonite and maybe another in the morning
We all better get ready for President Obama. I won’t vote for him but I sure am not going to vote for McCain.
If Mitt had not cut and run.....
Take Thompson out of the race and Huckabee wins SC. McCain has no momentum into FL and Romney wins there. We would have a Huckabee - Romney race right now. You see, this game of pullingpeople out the race can be played many ways. The bottom line is all the candidates spent millions of other peoples money (except Mitt) and deserved to stay in the race as long as they had the means to go on. Huckabee has the means and continues to win states, soI say let him run. If Mitt Romney could have won a contested primary in a state to which had no ties, he would still be in the race.
He suspended his campaign, he did not get out. That means he retains control over his delegate count, and if John Insane shows his true colors in a few days ...
I heard that he's already won 3 tonight.
You think you can win general without independent voters think again. And i am going to say this too. People around here are concerned about the chances of Barak Hussein Obama winning.And he is beginning to sound like a preacher on the campaign trail.and that also concerns a lot of voters.And Yes there are still a lot of people who believe he is really muslim
No, that would be Lindsey Graham.
5.56mm
PING for later read / analysis.
Huckster was a Godsend for McCain.
...then McCain's defeat in Kansas would not have been so noteworthy. Huckabee is widely regarded as a weak candidate. What does it say about McCain if he can't beat him in a two-man race?
I think Thompson got out to give Romney a chance in Florida. Now Romney got out to give Huckabee a chance to concentrate the anybody-but-McCain vote. Very weird indeed.
That’s flat out dumb.
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