In this past week’s Super Tuesday, that boasted twenty-two states up for grabs, Huckabee won a large portion of the South and now holds 217 delegates, 214 of which are pledged to support him in the Republican National Convention. The states he won on February 5th include Arkansas, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. Furthermore, he is currently trailing Republican frontrunner, John McCain, who has 714 delegate votes,697 of which are confirmed that they will support him in the party’s convention. Following Hucakbee’s impressive showing in the South, the other major republican candidate, Mitt Romney, dropped out of the race after only a few disappointing wins this week. The loss of Romney will greatly change the dynamics of the race since McCain and Huckabee had previously avoided attacking each other and instead teamed up against Romney, now the question is will the top two candidates continue to play nice?
In yesterday’s primary elections, Huckabee won in the state of Kansas, Louisiana and lost in a very close race in Washington State. According to the party’s rules, receiving delegates for the win in Louisiana is in jeopardy because Huckabee did not receive the majority of the votes, only the plurality. However, Huckabee vows to continue his campaign after winning six states in less than a one week and commented, “Earlier this morning, I said I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles. It looks like my victory in Kansas is one of them. Clearly I am pleased by these results, but it is onward and upward to Virginia and Maryland."
Outside the Huckabee campaign excitement it seems President George W. Bush has endorsed “a true conservative,” John McCain. Although Bush has extremely low popularity ratings, the endorsement will probably still hurt Huckabee seeing as he still holds access to many key fundraising techniques as the current President of the United States. In addition to holding six rallies in Kansas this week, Huckabee found the time to attend a taping of the Tyra Banks Show this past week, which is supposed to be shown on the air on February 29th. Apparently, his expertise fro his band Capitol Offense entitled him to give Tyra guitar lessons and they also discussed how he lost 112lbs. once informed of his diagnosis of Type II diabetes.
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3 comments:
Although Huckabee is not giving up, which shows stength and perserverance, I really don't believe he's going to be able to pull it off. Sure, McCain has not really convinced ALL the Republicans, but based on his delegate count he sure does have a lot of supporters. I think that especially with such a huge endorsement (regardless of the fact that it is Bush, he's still the President), McCain will only continue to dominate.
I haven't quite figured out why Huckabee hasn't withdrawn from the race yet; currently, it's almost mathematically impossible for him to win the nomination, even if he won over 50% in all the remaining states, and the longer he remains in competition with McCain, the less likely McCain will be to nominate him as a running mate (although I don't think his chances were very good in the first place).
Who would have thought at the beginning of this race that Huckabee would be the last man standing to challenge John McCain? It is interesting that McCain is trying to court conservative voters, even though he has a reputation as more of a moderate, but Huckabee is not even trying for moderate votes, he's just playing up his conservative credentials. When asked why he is the better candidate in a recent breakfast meeting he replied, "Moderate Republicans lose. Conservative Republicans win.” That definitely isn't the kind of statement that is going to win over the hearts of skeptical moderates. Although the party definitely has a broader conservative base, if Huckabee is serious about his bid for president he's going to need to attract moderates and those crucial independents to swing it his way.
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