TRS watched and compared John McCain’s “Face the Nation” appearance this morning with Mike Huckabee’s on the Canis Lupus’ “Late Edition”. It certainly appears that we are watching the birth of the 2008 ticket.
As expected, both candidates subjected the suggestion that Huck drop out of the race to complete derision. Both Huck and Mac delivered hard and rather personal attacks on Mitt; both Huck and Mac emphasized the inconsistency in Mitt’s positions. In a very powerful attack, Huck built off Mitt’s Peterine denial of the Reagan/Bush legacy back in Mitt’s ’94 Senate Campaign against Edward Kennedy, and said that both he and Mac were in the “church long before” Mitt joined and started signing louder than everyone else.
Mac sounded highly conciliatory toward the social and fiscal wings of the party that don’t entirely trust the author of McCain Feingold or the Gang of 14’ Coach and General Manager. To a certain extent Johnny Mac’s very personal rivalry with George W might have caused an aberration from Mac’s previously more conservative behavior. Mac’s brief references, both direct and oblique, were quite respectful, providing a sharp contrast to outright assaults on Mitt.
Huck also pointed to several differences between he and John McCain but refused to call Mac a liberal. Huck sounded respectful and conciliatory without pandering or surrendering his own positions to the “front runner”. Back in 1980, Poppy Bush followed the same road to the Naval Observatory Mansion once Dutch pulled out to a big lead. I’m sure the ideological irony isn’t lost on the reader.
Rudy’s sudden disappearance has made a huge difference in the Republican dynamic. Mac’s huge lead in the big Northeastern winner take all states is probably insurmountable. Huck’s strength in the Southern states, also with large delegations, is less significant because so many such states are not winter take all. Mitt and Mac will both get delegates in Arkansas, both Huck and Mac will have delegates in Massachusetts but Mac gets all 53 of Arizona’s winner-take-all primary.
Without Rudy to split the security vote Mac gains a huge advantage in the Super Tuesday delegate count. While Rudy could have hung on to broker a convention deal, it appears that such a deal has probably already been made. Rudy’s support should significantly widen Mac’s delegate lead and, in the end, that’s the only count that really matters. The delegate lead, however, might not be sufficient to ensure the nomination.
In the meantime, both Huck and Mitt can pick up to a couple hundred delegates on Super Tuesday. Each of areas of strength, and Mitt is very solid in some big delegation states. Huck has a large share of the Southern vote and most of the Southern states produce proportional delegations.
Since Super Tuesday stands to settle nothing in the Democrat fold, Mac has a strong incentive to cut a deal to secure the nomination early so that we can focus on the liberal recipe for disaster. Nothing in the personal dynamic between Mitt and Mac suggest any possible close alliance. Mike Huckabee seems to be the logical choice.
A campaign team of McCain and Huckabee looks pretty formidable going into Super Tuesday. That ticket may look like reality by around midnight February 6.
As expected, both candidates subjected the suggestion that Huck drop out of the race to complete derision. Both Huck and Mac delivered hard and rather personal attacks on Mitt; both Huck and Mac emphasized the inconsistency in Mitt’s positions. In a very powerful attack, Huck built off Mitt’s Peterine denial of the Reagan/Bush legacy back in Mitt’s ’94 Senate Campaign against Edward Kennedy, and said that both he and Mac were in the “church long before” Mitt joined and started signing louder than everyone else.
Mac sounded highly conciliatory toward the social and fiscal wings of the party that don’t entirely trust the author of McCain Feingold or the Gang of 14’ Coach and General Manager. To a certain extent Johnny Mac’s very personal rivalry with George W might have caused an aberration from Mac’s previously more conservative behavior. Mac’s brief references, both direct and oblique, were quite respectful, providing a sharp contrast to outright assaults on Mitt.
Huck also pointed to several differences between he and John McCain but refused to call Mac a liberal. Huck sounded respectful and conciliatory without pandering or surrendering his own positions to the “front runner”. Back in 1980, Poppy Bush followed the same road to the Naval Observatory Mansion once Dutch pulled out to a big lead. I’m sure the ideological irony isn’t lost on the reader.
Rudy’s sudden disappearance has made a huge difference in the Republican dynamic. Mac’s huge lead in the big Northeastern winner take all states is probably insurmountable. Huck’s strength in the Southern states, also with large delegations, is less significant because so many such states are not winter take all. Mitt and Mac will both get delegates in Arkansas, both Huck and Mac will have delegates in Massachusetts but Mac gets all 53 of Arizona’s winner-take-all primary.
Without Rudy to split the security vote Mac gains a huge advantage in the Super Tuesday delegate count. While Rudy could have hung on to broker a convention deal, it appears that such a deal has probably already been made. Rudy’s support should significantly widen Mac’s delegate lead and, in the end, that’s the only count that really matters. The delegate lead, however, might not be sufficient to ensure the nomination.
In the meantime, both Huck and Mitt can pick up to a couple hundred delegates on Super Tuesday. Each of areas of strength, and Mitt is very solid in some big delegation states. Huck has a large share of the Southern vote and most of the Southern states produce proportional delegations.
Since Super Tuesday stands to settle nothing in the Democrat fold, Mac has a strong incentive to cut a deal to secure the nomination early so that we can focus on the liberal recipe for disaster. Nothing in the personal dynamic between Mitt and Mac suggest any possible close alliance. Mike Huckabee seems to be the logical choice.
A campaign team of McCain and Huckabee looks pretty formidable going into Super Tuesday. That ticket may look like reality by around midnight February 6.
8 comments:
Huckabee was just interviewed on Fox News (Channel 44 in Des Moines) and he sure sounded like a Vice Presidential candidate.
I agree with Sporer, a McCain/Huckabee ticket would run strong.
McCain/Huckabee? Jesus, I just shake my head and think, "Is this the best we got". Grammatically incorrect though that may be.
Let's go with Romney and some token, yet qualified, broad on the ticket. Like Mitt and Colormelisa Rice. That'll trump the Clinton/Obama circus pretty good. And please don't drag JC (which stands for Julius Ceasar by the way) into this "mix". That guy's a slick bum if ever there was one. And don't talk to me about Colonostomy Powell either.
McCain and Huckabee. Clinton and Obama. Shit, let's just go ahead now and give away what's left to the damn welfare trash and the illegals.
I can live with McCain and Huckabee running together as any inclusion of Mitt as Veep is out of the question at this point due to bad blood between Mitt and EVERYBODY!
I hope we find a way to appease Mitt and his supporters by making him something worthwhile other than Pres and Veep. As for McCain I hope he become far more conservative than his history suggests. I will vote for the Republican nominee regardless. Oh, I hope Ralph Nader gets in and Ron Paul gets out too.
"Appease Mitt?"
Why in the world should we appease Mitt?
Why should the GOP appease a candidate who as late as 2005 was still pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and put in government run health care as Governor?
Why? Because Romney has a big bank account?
Romney's been arrogant...he's pissed a lot of people off with how he's run his campaign...
He thought he could walk into Iowa..spend a ton of money, buy a bunch of tv and radio ads and win here easily..did the same thing in New Hampshire..Romney got taught a lesson..that he hasn't seemed to get quite yet..
All very good and valid points about Mitt. My only issue is McCain is not very conservative and has pissed off most Conservatives in his own right.
McCain refused to open his records and fought viciously against the POW/MIA families and the prisoners left behind in Vietnam....a smaller number of former POWs, MIA families and veterans have suggested there is something especially damning about McCain that the senator wants to keep hidden.
Without release of the files, such accusations must be viewed as unsubstantiated speculation. The main reason, however, for seeking these files is to find out if there is any information in the debriefings, or in other MIA documents that McCain and the Pentagon have kept sealed, about how many prisoners were held back by North Vietnam after the Paris peace treaty was signed in January 1973. The defense and intelligence establishment has long resisted the declassification of critical records on this subject. McCain has been the main congressional force behind this effort.
The prisoner return in 1973 saw 591 Americans repatriated by North Vietnam. The problem was that the U.S. intelligence list of men believed to be alive at that time in captivity — in Vietnam, Laos and possibly across the border in southern China and in the Soviet Union — was much larger.Possibly hundreds of men larger.
The State Department stated publicly in 1973 that intelligence data showed the prisoner list to be starkly incomplete. For example, only nine of the 591 returnees came out of Laos, though experts in U.S. military intelligence listed 311 men as missing in that Hanoi-run country alone, and their field reports indicated that many of those men were probably still alive. Hanoi said it was returning all the prisoners it had. President Nixon, on March 29, 1973, seconded that claim, telling the nation on television: “All of our American POWs are on their way home.” This discrepancy has never been acknowledged or explained by official Washington. Over the years in Washington, McCain, at times almost single-handedly, has pushed through Pentagon-desired legislation to make it impossible or much harder for the public to acquire POW/MIA information and much easier for the defense bureaucracy to keep it hidden.
I have to laugh at the Romney talking heads on TV who claim that if Huckabee dropped out his support would go to Mitt. Are they delusional, self serving, or just plane stupid? Huckabee’s people neither like, trust, nor respect Mitt Romney. If they did, they would have moved long before now, Romney would have won Iowa and we wouldn’t be having this discussion now.
The fact is that if Huck drops out, his people probably split 75% for McCain and 25% for Romney. Last I checked, Romney was over 10 points down so the addition of 5% to Romneys total and the addition of 15% to McCain’s probably hurts Romney more than if Huckabee stayed in the race with this 20%. Romney’s looking at a race now where its Roughly:
McCain - 35%
Romney – 24%
Huckabee – 20%
Ron Paul – 5%
Total: McCain +11%
If Huck were out, it would look more like this:
McCain – 48%
Romney – 29%
Ron Paul – 7%
Total: McCain +19%
(Huck has a handful of crazies that may follow Ron Paul if he were out)
So there you go Mitt, you can be down 11% or you can be down 19%. Perhaps you should do some background checks on the talking heads you hire … They are filling you head full of BS in order to keep you in so they can keep taking your personal fortune to pay their overly exorbitant consulting fees. You’re in second place, but it’s a distant second and everyone hates you. Its time to go Mitt .. You’re never going to be President, learn to live with it … Al Gore did, you can too.
Well,
It appears Mitt is out of the race for good so the Mitt haters should be happy.
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