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In their shortsightedness, the American public has proven that they are not ready for a revivalist president. Mike Huckabee has gotten the message and dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, but if you think it's over for this folksy fundamentalist, you're dead wrong.
To borrow a phrase from Hillary Clinton, Huckabee is "just getting warmed up" to the spotlight. Word has it Huckabee will be hiring a team of agents and will begin shopping a talk show around to the cable networks.
According to the New York Times TV Decoder blog, the former governor is already in high demand. "We have a chair he could fill" said MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski. "I'll be calling you soon," said Stephen Baldwin, who's launching some kind of Christian advocacy site.
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And so, the presidential candidate who stopped campaigning to give a paid speech in the Caymans may soon be setting up a tax shelter of his own there, on account of being filthy rich from TV syndication. Turns out that losing all that weight was a better move than anyone ever could have imagined. Except maybe Mike Huckabee.
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James Dobson, one of the country's most prominent evangelical leaders, endorsed Mike Huckabee in a statement released last night, saying he could not "in good conscience" cast a vote for Sen. John McCain.
Dobson explained how he came to the decision; Huckabee, a former pastor who became governor of Arkansas with strong "pro-family" bona fides, is the only other person left in the race.
We guess Dobson doesn't have the same sort of strategy and communicaitions people he once had working for him; this reads less like an statement of support and more like a memo on the state of the race.
Not exactly a resounding endorsement, but certainly Huck appreciates it nonetheless.
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The media has been quick to hand the nomination to John McCain after Mitt Romney's high-profile exit from the race this afternoon. They seem to have forgotten about the wild card: Mike Huckabee. Huckabee was widely expected to disappear on Tuesday, but instead he carried most of the southern states that held Super Tuesday contests. Now with Romney gone and much of the Conservative hardcore base upset with McCain's reputation as a moderate, perhaps Huckabee's Feb. 5 victory speech claim of being engaged in "a two man race" might be more accurate than previously assumed.
Huckabee has a real opportunity to grab the mantle as a "true conservative," though he has been criticized from the right for his spending practices as governor of Arkansas. Still, with at least a chunk of Romney's supporters dissatisfied with McCain, Huckabee should expect a bit of a boost.
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It's going to take quite a bit of work on the part of his campaign to keep from being
shut out by the media, though.
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Every candidate picked up delegates and nobody is feeling compelled to drop out of the race. John McCain claims front runner status on the Republican side, by winning Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Oklahoma, and bringing his total to 613 delegates.Mitt Romney is up to only 269 from wins in Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts and Minnesota.Mike Huckabee did surprisingly well, winning across the South in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Hillary Clinton won 845 delegates from Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Barrack Obama was right behind her, bringing his total to 765. He carried Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah.
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The Democratic race remains locked in a dead heat.Democrats could be headed for a brokered convention to determine their nominee. A crisis could occur if Obama goes into the convention with slightly more delegates than Clinton; the Superdelegates could still make her the nominee.McCain is way out in front of the Republican pack. Huckabee's continued presence in the race will help McCain, hurt Romney
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Mike Huckabee has won the caucus in West Virginia and the primaries in Georgia, Tennesee, Alabama and Arkansas making him the first winner of a Super Tuesday 2008 contest. It looks like supporters of John McCain decided to take the long view to best support their candidate; after McCain placed third behind Romney and Huckabee, the Arizona Senator's supporters switched their support to Huckabee, putting the former Arkansas governor over the top and earning him 18 delegates in the West Virginia race. He also won the primaries in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas.
The McCain camp is demonstrating a pretty shrewd command of electoral math, figuring that if this going to be a long race to the nomination, it's better to keep Huckabee around to siphon support from Romney than take the multi-millionaire self-financing candidate on head-to-head. It would be an understatement to say that Huckabee has outperformed expectations.
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It's true that from this point forth his candidacy is essentially a buffer between Romney and McCain, but the fact that Huckabee, this guy from nowhere, who started with no name recognition and no money, won another contest and will make it to tomorrow is astounding. It's hard to imagine what future roll Huckabee has, but it's hard to imagine he'll stray to far from wherever in the action is in Republican politics for the next few years.
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Republicans and Democrats go to the polls today in Florida. The Republican side of the primary shows a dead heat between John McCain and Mitt Romney. The Democratic side which was not really contested should be going big for Hillary Clinton as she has most of the power players in Florida on her side. Obama by getting the Kennedy endorsements should get a boost among Hispanics who respect the Kennedy legacy.
McCain and Romney have been going at it for the last week on comments made by McCain about Romney’s alleged statements about withdrawing from Iraq. Rudy Giuliani who was the clear front runner up until about a month ago when he started fading fast. Different pundits have speculated that Giuliani will leave the race if he comes in third in Florida as projected. Huckabee is running in fourth place and will also be a non factor going forward if he does not improve his poll numbers. Ron Paul has not really resonated with voters in the state.
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It was a much more subdued affair than the fiery Democratic debate just a couple days earlier. Romney came out talking about his economic accomplishments both as a Governor and a businessman and that he would be the best candidate to lead this country on economic issues. He also had the best soud bite of the evening when he was asked about running against the Clinton team, "The idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do is something I can’t imagine" . Giuliani was asked about his hometown paper the New York Times endorsing John McCain and issuing the following scathing analysis of Rudy Giuliani describing him as, "a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man." Rudy was the big loser of the night as he was also asked about his free fall in the polls from the clear leader in Florida to third place and he responded that he expected to win just like his hometown New York Giants did in reaching the Super Bowl.
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McCain really did ntot do much but brought laughter in commenting about remarks made abut thim by his 95 year old mother and actor Chuck Norris. He also defended the war in Iraq. Hucakbaee also brought laughs to the crowd with some of his responses and actually seemed to be the most relaxed candidate on the stage. Ron Paul also took the stage and took his less government message to the crowd.
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Talk about the dead coming to life. Much maligned candidate John McCain has risen from the dead to catch up to Romney in the New Hampshire primary. After critical missteps on the war and on immigration McCain has righted the ship and revived his campaign to become President. The unrest in Pakistan could be drawing voters to McCain due to his seasoning and military background. The political infighting between Huckabee and Romney had also taken its toll on the Romney campaign. Guiliani comes in at a distant third in the latest polls.
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Republican Candidate Mike Hucakbee blasted fellow candidate Mitt Romney as dishonest. Huckabee also said he would not support Romney if he was the eventual Republican presidential candidate. They are tied at the top of the polls in Iowa which is the first primary race. You have to wonder if all the fighting between Hucakbee and Romney may hurt them in the race with most American's being disatisfied with the current feduing that goes on now in Washington. It will remain to be seen if the other candidates will gain at the expense of the two frontrunners when the votes are actually cast.
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Mitt Romney still leads the Republican field in New Hampshire according to a Fox News Poll. John McCain is surprisingly in second place with 20% followed by Rudy Guiliani. With 16%. The poll also confirms Democratic polls which show the economy as the most important issue on voter’s minds supplanting the Iraq war. Almost 4 out of 10 people surveyed also do not like George Bush’s Job performance. Mitt Romney however still trails in South Carolina. Mitt Romney’s popularity in New Hampshire is bolstered by him being the Governor of the neighboring state of Massachusetts.
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Rollins is no stranger to National Presidential races. Ed Rollins one of the most well known Republican strategists has been named Mike Huckabee’s national Campaign Chairman. Ed Rollins worked for Ronald Reagan as President Reagan’s National Campaign Director. He also was one of the architects of Christie Whitman’s stunning defeat of Jim Florio in the New Jersey Gubernatorial race. He did receive a lot of flack afterwards however about his claim of suppressing the black voter turnout through paying black ministers. He later said the entire events had been exaggerated. There is no question Rollins is a seasoned operative who will bring national credibility to the Huckabee campaign.
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Huckabee now leads in South Carolina according to a CNN Poll. He is on top of the Republican field with 24% of the vote. This is a far cry form the bottom feeding 3% he was registering in July. Maybe its his Christian roots but according to the poll people believe he is telling the truth. Even Ron Paul is making his mark coming in at a respectable 11% only 5% behind Rudy Giuliani who was the leader in July. Fred Thompson, a Southern candidate is second with 18%. This is a remarkable turnaround for Huckabee but will this trend continue as South Carolina Republicans tend to be Christian conservatives which is the Huckabee’s base of strength. He is also the former Governor from nearby Arkansas which is probably also helping him.
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