Posted on 02/16/2008 4:52:03 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
LITTLE ROCK - Any day now, Mike Huckabee will need a day job.
Unless the former Southern Baptist preacher finds the electoral miracle he's been searching for, that job search may begin soon. Waging what most consider a mathematically impossible campaign against presumptive nominee John McCain, Huckabee is facing increased pressure to abandon his White House hopes.
But where does a former governor and White House hopeful go next?
In Huckabee's case, the answer could be anywhere.
Despite potentially annoying McCain by pushing his campaign to the limits and exposing McCain's vulnerabilities with some social conservatives, Huckabee has carved a new role for himself nationally with the Republican party.
"He's gone from 'Mike who?' to a nationally recognizable figure," said Allan Lichtman, a political history professor at American University in Washington, D.C. "What's there to lose?"
The longer he stays in the race, the more Huckabee gets what he and most politicians crave _ attention and the headlines that goes with it. And the attention has paid off well. So far, he's played table hockey with comedian Stephen Colbert, campaigned with action star Chuck Norris and tailgated with wrestler Ric Flair.
"He's probably come to the right conclusion that he's better off in the race than out of the race," said Peter Woolley, a political science professor at Farleigh Dickinson College in New Jersey. "He's better off staying in the news than disappearing. He's better off getting as much exposure as he can."
In the meantime, he's making a name for himself in the party. And it's a name that might be needed for a party still fractured from the 2006 elections and by President Bush's low approval ratings.
Even if he's not chosen as McCain's running mate, Huckabee could sell himself as the newfound face of the party's Christian evangelicals, a base that vaulted him to victories in Iowa, Georgia and other Bible Belt states, including Arkansas.
With that widespread support among evangelicals, Huckabee might be able to bridge the gaps among the party that have been exposed during the race for the GOP nomination. And he could prepare himself for another, probably better-funded, presidential run in 2012 or 2016.
"It could be as a peacemaker, it could be as an ambassador," Woolley said. "It could be as a candidate who in four years or eight years who may have a much broader appeal than he does right now."
Or maybe Huckabee could find a new role back home.
More than a year after Republicans lost seats in the Legislature and control of the governor's office, the state GOP is still struggling to rebuild its farm team of legislators and local officials. Tom Formicola, who lost a 2006 primary for Congress, is the only potential candidate the party has been able to field for a run against Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor in the fall.
A Huckabee-Pryor run doesn't look like it's in the cards, with Huckabee joking that he'd rather tattoo his body and tour with pop singer Amy Winehouse than try another Senate run. He does, after all, play bass guitar. Of course, that wouldn't preclude him from attempting a 2010 run against Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, viewed by Republicans as more vulnerable than Pryor.
Arkansas Republican Party Chairman Dennis Milligan, a Huckabee supporter, said he believed Huckabee could still exert influence over the state GOP if he doesn't win his party's presidential nod.
"I think that, if called upon, he would be somebody who would certainly be willing to make some phone calls on behalf of candidates and maybe help raise some money for the party that would ultimately end up in candidates' hands," Milligan said.
Huckabee, for now, rejects calls to leave the race and dismisses the notion that he's hurting his standing in the party by lingering. He showed a flash of irritation at a reporter last week who suggested the former governor was acting out of ego rather than party loyalty.
"Why would they think that? Why would they think that it was self-interest instead of the greater good of the party?" Huckabee said after McCain's victories in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia last week.
"It really would be an admission of extraordinary weakness in our party if we could not handle within our party having a real election," Huckabee said. "I thought that's the whole point of politics."
Wasn’t he unemployed to begin with?
Would YOU quit, if Chuck was behind you?
I think the huckster will become a television evangelist. Evangelical cultist supreme! Look out Trinity Network!
Nah, he’s always lived in government housing or off the tithes of his parishoners.
Likely he helps start an alternative party to McCain that features a pro-life stance you can trust.
Manufacture squirrel fryolators...
Because it's true.
Huck is making a horse's patooty of himself. As far as going anywhere in the national party is concerned, well, his stock tanking. And he's such a fool he does not even realize it.
It was sort of like “Deal or no Deal” and Romney held the winning suitcase.
But where does a former governor and White House hopeful go next?
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Try Dunkin Donuts. I hear the coffee’s pretty good.
Maybe he should carpet bag in some other state like Hillary did? I'd love to pass the trash..
sw
“It could be as a peacemaker, it could be as an ambassador,”
LOL, he could give Jimmuh a run for his money monitoring elections all over the world.
Huck will be Chuck Norris’ best boy.
He can throw in the Fair Tax to attract fiscons and amnesty for the Latinos. It could be a winning combination.
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