I would like mIke Huckabee to know that I am proud of him for representing the people in this country who still hold to the moral values that should brook no argument.
The Huckabee Factor
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
SPONSORED BY
Each is envisioning what a two-way race would look like—that is, who his final foe would be.
The debate showed their strategies. Rudy's imperative, for example, is to prevent anything definitive from happening until next Jan. 29, when Florida, where he has lots of support, goes to the polls.
He sees Florida as his springboard to Armageddon Day, Feb. 5, when 21 states vote, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. So he wants anyone other than Romney to win Iowa (on Jan. 3), New Hampshire (on Jan. 8) and South Carolina (on Jan. 19). Whether he can stall things that long is highly questionable, but that's his theory.
That means, essentially, hoping that Huckabee wins Iowa, perhaps McCain wins New Hampshire and … and this is where the theory breaks down: Huckabee is making a major play in South Carolina now. As he consolidates the support of evangelical Christians across the Bible Belt he is going to be a major force in the South.
It is not clear that Romney will lose New Hampshire. While they grouse about it, New Hampshire voters tend to support politicians from Massachusetts in presidential primaries—Mike Dukakis, Paul Tsongas and John Kerry, to name three. But for Romney to hang on there, he has to beat back not just Rudy but also a renascent McCain—which explains Romney's cringe-inducing insistence in the debate on prolonging a discussion with the former war prisoner on the question of torture. McCain's strategy may be the least complicated in the GOP field: revive the straight talk and hope for New Hampshire.
To have any shot at all, Thompson has to win South Carolina, which is why he used his TV ad time in the debate to attack Romney and Huckabee—arguably his two main challengers there.
Discuss