Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, buoyed by strong support from Christian conservatives, has surged past three of his better-known presidential rivals and is now challenging former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the lead in the Iowa Republican caucuses, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News Poll.Huckabee has tripled his support in Iowa since late July, eclipsing former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). Huckabee now runs nearly evenly with Romney, the longtime Iowa front-runner.
Not only is Huckabee about tied with Romney for first place in Iowa, he's also surging AND his supporters are more committed. The bottom line is that Huckabee's increasingly likely to win Iowa. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and make a forecast that Huckabee WILL win Iowa. If that happens, it obviously would really hurt Mitt Romney heading out of Iowa and on to New Hampshire. It might also help Rudy Giuliani, who was never expected to do well in Iowa anyway.
A competitive Mike Huckabee, combined with the surge of Ron Paul in New Hampshire, could lead to a protracted battle for the GOP nomination between Romney, Huckabee, Guiliani, Thompson, McCain, and maybe even Paul. Personally, I'm going to grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy this. I'm also going to continue rooting for Rudy Giuliani to emerge victorious in the end, triggering a major schism within the Republican Party and a landslide victory for the Democratic nominee next November. Well, that's the optimal scenario, anyway. We'll see...
Funny thing about every split household I went to was that every couple in their 30s-40s the guy was supporting Huckabee and every woman was supporting Obama. When it got to seniors most of the woman supported Hillary. I will add that these senior women were a bit militant in their support of Hillary and were very rude about all the other candidates.
Now that Huckabee has the coveted Chuck Norris and Ric Flair endorsements, he may surge ahead in the 80-99 IQ demographic.
This is in no way a Christian Nation. For all of their attacks on Romney for his Mormonism, there's nothing in his history that would indicate he'd move the capitol to Salt Lake City.
Huckabee, on the other hand is a flat out Religious nut. Everything he would do would be guided by his interpretation of scripture. That will win him a lot of support within the Republican party, which just shows how backward that party has become.
I hope Romney wins though. If we had to lose an election to someone, I would prefer that be Romney than any of those others.
That's okay with me, e.g., in Virginia to solve some of our problems. If he does get the nomination, I wonder what will happen to Norquist's tax pledge?
I wonder what his ascendancy will do to those Christian Right leaders who've endorsed Romney and, especially, Giuliani. Are they losing influence and credibility with the rank and file, who are ignoring their accomodation to "electability" and turning to the candidate who most truly reprsents them?