McCain v. Huckabee

Huckabee's wins last night are certainly an interesting story.

Part of his success was the result of a grassroots reaction to the "McCain's the nominee" story that has been everywhere since Super Tuesday. Loyal Huckabee voters (which most of them are) decided to brave the cold of a February night in Kansas to support their man while McCain's supporters likely didn't see the need.

Senator McCain's February 5th victories established him as the man to beat, but he's done everything except nail down that title for himself. Mike Huckabee's wins today in Louisiana and Kansas, as well as his very close (as of 2:07 A.M.) second place finish in Washington—a state far away from Huckabee's South that would geographically change the dynamic of Huckabee's campaign—are a sign that things are not 100% settled on the Republican side.


Huckabee will win counties in Virginia next weekend, and he'll likely win a bunch of them due to his strong support in neighboring West Virginia and the state's Christian population outside of the cities. If Virginia does not go to McCain, or Huckabee puts up a very strong result, Governor Huckabee has no need to drop out of the race, and he could once again have a serious shot of making a stand in the long fight against McCain.

It's an unlikely scenario having Huckabee go head to head with the McCain movement across the country, but he's somehow hanging in there with a level of grace matched only by Senator McCain himself.

A civil, yet contested Republican battle...who woulda thought?


(all photos: © 2008 by Luke N. Vargas. All Rights Reserved.)