I didn’t give Mitt Romney enough credit: today he suspended his campaign. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Does this, as the pundits are saying, seal the deal for John McCain? Or does Gov. Romney’s support go to Mike Huckabee and make this a national two-person race?
Either way, it will probably mean one more lesson for the political-science curricula that are sure to be written off this screwball presidential campaign.
I was really amazed at the pundits reaction. While I think it is HIGHLY unlikely that Huck will receive the number of delegates to WIN the primary, he could certainly gain enough delegates to top both Romney and McCain.
All he has to do is get close and broker a deal with Ron Paul for his delegates.
The talking heads are still promoting the idea that Governor Huckabee is only a regional candidate with appeal to Evangelicals. When he wins Kansas and possibly Washington State tomorrow, we’ll see if they change their tune. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
The pundits seem to ignore the fact that Iowa and West Virginia aren’t Southern states.
I’m not so sure that’s true of WV, but Iowa, certainly. And anyone who’s lived in Washington knows that the Republican base there is far, far more conservative than the state, and quite evangelical in tenor; I don’t expect Huckabee to win, primarily because of the high percentage of military and ex-military among WA Republican voters, but I think Huck could put up a very strong showing–and I think all he really needs to do, to begin to change that image, is to keep it close. (Assuming he wins KS, anyway.) The MSM won’t catch that, but a lot of folks will.
Really, I think the MSM is pushing McCain so hard because they’ve bought the line from some Republicans that the man’s a liberal. If he wins the nomination, they’re going to be unpleasantly surprised; in the meantime, I hate the way their bias has hurt Romney and Huckabee. I suppose I should be grateful, though, that it helped push Rudy out of the race.