[mtbopfuyn]

There’s other states with a voice? Really? And here I thought is was all about Iowa.

[Redbob]

To the extent that so-called “religious conservatives” support Huckaby, they demonstrate they are, at best, not at all conservative, and at worst, that they are, shall we say, easily led...

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Here’s an idea - dump the Huckster, dump Giuliani (and dump Mitt and McQueeg, too) and get behind Fred. Fred has what the SoCons, the Fiscons, and the DefCons are all looking for.

[Old Sarge]

Hmmm... no mention of McCain, Fred, or Hunter. Nope, no bias here. More evidence of the drive-by’s efforts to manipulate the GOP turnout.

[Clemenza]

Freddoso is another Noo Yawk cosmo shilling for Rudy over that “dumb hick” Huck. Why does this idiot even think that its going to be Huckster versus Giussolini anyway? What about Romney and McCain?

[AmericaUnited]

Huckleberry is the GOP’s version of Jimma “I’ze born again” Carter.

For any Christians who are supporting this imbecile, get a clue. You are supposed to be “wise as serpents...”, not stupid, gullible sheep, led around by anyone who can quote from the Bible. You are supposed to be wise and have discernment. And if you do, you won’t be supporting this loser.

[dforest]

I have to say something. I said it on an earlier thread. The Fred campaign may be more wise than we have given them credit for.

While all the others are out there pounding each other, Fred is just now making a run.

By now, we are sick of all of the frontrunners, but we are yet to be sick of Fred.

Maybe a brilliant strategy and leave Fred as the last man standing.

[Kevmo]

From there, it becomes a Republican blood feud unless a third candidate can force a brokered convention.
***Intrade/Rasumussen currently show the chances of a brokered GOP convention to be 15%.

REP.NOM.2008.BROKERED
The 2008 Republican Pres. Nominee to be selected at a Brokered Convention M 15.0 20.0 15.0 60 0

[Russ]

"It's gone (The Reagan coalition)said Ed Rollins."

Then so am I...

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

I wouldn’t vote for either, against anybody.

[codercpc]

Ok, Let's take this article at face value as the eventual scenario (which I do not). But for the fun of it, let's say this happens.

If forced to support Huck or Rudy, who would you pull for.

PLEASE, NO "I won't vote" answers, I just want to know how Freepers would come down between Huck and Rudy.

My answer, of course, is Rudy, what about you?

[Tarpon]

Must be bad in Clinton ‘ville. Not a word for days.

[Bob J]

All the people calling those who don’t endorse their candidate “stupid”, “unintelligent” or “sheep” are part of the problem. Conservative politics is made up of a large group of people who all have their most important individual issue whether it be abortion, taxes or gun rights, etc. Just because someone else doesn’t have your #1 agenda item at heart doesn’t make theirs any less important to them.

For the last 30 years we have had an unwritten agreement. We fight hard in the primaries to get our favored candidate the nod, but pull together and vote as a group once that decision is made. You’re candidate might not win but with any candidate from the GOP you have a good chance of having your issues acted on...with the dems, you have little or none and the damage they could do to any of them might set those political agendas back decades.

I was very disappointed when some leaders of the Christian right came out and said they absolutely wouldn’t vote for a candidate not to their liking. This is an abrogation of that unwritten agreement and could very well lead to a schism in the conservative community that could rip it apart and usher in dem control of congress and the white house for decades. Sad.

That being said, I believe we need to hold fast to our agreement. Huckabee is not my preferred candidate but if he gets the nod I will support him in the general election.

I hope others, including those to whom abortion is their #1 concern, will see the long term sanity of this strategy, and do the same.

[ModelBreaker]

A Huck-Rudy showdown would be a primary fight between two candidates with almost nothing in common. It would polarize and tear apart the Republican party just as the national electorate is currently polarized.

True that. And the problem is that neither of them offers anything to the other half of the coalition.

[Fishrrman]

Judging from the vitriol displayed in the followups to this article - the "if xxx is the candidate, I won't be voting!" posts, etc. - one can conclude that Mr. Freddoso is prescient in his prognostications.

... and also that Republicans are facing a dismal November.

President Hillary?
President Obama?

I wish it weren't so.
But things don't look good from where I sit....

- John

[Hattie]

How can tax exempt churches, pastors etc shill and organize for a single political candidate?

[hinckley buzzard]

A Huck-Rudy showdown would be a primary fight between two candidates with almost nothing in common

Yes it would but I see this as a highly unlikely scenario. Both of these candidates have had relative volatility in their polling. One will be 'up' and the other 'out' by super Tuesday. Or they may both be 'out.' What won't happen is both of them staying 'up'.

[LowCountryJoe]

This is good commentary. But the reality of this scenario playing out isn’t likely. For starters, after all these self-interested politicians that still remain in the race evaluate the landscape after the first few primaries, some are going to drop out and endorse others...in spite of their self-interests, they’ll drop/endorse for the good of the party. Huckabee will not receive any endorsements from the others and the only votes Huckabee will pick up is the rare voters that have Huckabee in mind as their alterative guy.

[dangus]

You think a Rudy-Huck battle complicates things? Consider a Huck-Romney battle... with Rudy taking 200+ delegates.

[delacoert]

From there, it becomes a Republican blood feud unless a third candidate can force a brokered convention.

This is the dumb beat. It has been faint up until now, but it's growing.

RINOs in charge is not the inevitable future for the Republican party.

Republicans, working against today's top tier of RINO candidates, have a hope that with perseverance, one of the true conservatives can win out.