Posted on 02/19/2008 11:09:16 PM PST by Checkers
John McCain's victory in the Washington State Presidential Primary tonight should surprise no one. His thrashing of Mike Huckabee, however, and the latter's poor overall showing, is a fascinating storyline.
McCain's win in another non-Southern state tonight was likewise anti-climatic, though thanks to the meaningful and competitive Democratic primary in Wisconsin there was actually an exit poll conducted for the dissection of political junkies. It showed Mike Huckabee getting pounded among non-Evangelicals, losing to McCain 67% - 24%. Those voters comprised 62% of Wisconsin voters casting GOP ballots. That's a pathetic showing in a two-man race.
Alas, there is no exit poll in Washington, but we can be assured based on the results thus far that Huckabee is getting shelled. As of 9:20 tonight, when most counties had reported their one tally for the evening and after initial tallies from King and Pierce (with more poll votes coming), Huckabee was barely beating Mitt Romney in the statewide vote count, 21.15% to 20.48%, with over 363,000 votes counted. Furthermore, Huckabee was actually running 3rd behind McCain and Romney in fourteen counties.
That's amazing. Romney dropped out of the race twelve days ago and Huckabee is still losing to him in that many locales, including larger counties such as Benton, King, and Spokane. Moreover, Huckabee leads Romney by only small margins in a couple significant suburban counties, Clark (1.55%) and Kitsap (1.25%). Given all that, early absentees alone can't account for Romney's totals. And even considering the fact those margins will probably move in Huckabee's favor with later absentee/mail-in votes it's still a serious embarrassment.
(Excerpt) Read more at soundpolitics.com ...
Now that it is clear he can’t win, I kind of hope he stays in, and keeps losing, so that McCain still has speeches to make on election night. It helps that he gets the stage with Barack and Hillary.
What was great last night is that at least on the stations I watched Huckabee didn’t get his shot because he happened to start speaking when the democrats were starting. But McCain went right at about 9pm, when people just started tuning in, so he got first shot.
Without any drama, they won’t cover him, and the democrats will get free publicity.
In Washington Romney beat Huckabee in 13 of the 39 counties and for a while Romney was ahead and then neck and neck the reat of the night.
Yes, oh so large. 2-3% of the population is LDS...
Please give the Mormon jibes a rest.
Are you going to let actual facts get in the way of a good anti-McCain rant?
Oh let Huckabee stay in, it gives McCain a free victory speech from now until the Convention.
I’m glad McInsane got the support that he did. It means that they won’t miss my vote at all...
I think you’re right. Huckabee is helping McCain get coverage. I had sworn off voting for McCain, but I don’t think I can stomach Barack ‘Partial birth abortion’ Obama as President. It will be Jimmy Carter all over again. I know we got Reagan after Carter, but the late 70s were dark times.
“I suspect that a lot of Republicans are voting for Obama just out of hatred for Hillary. I have no data to back this notion up. Just a suspicion”
I heard that 10% of the GOP vote in Wisconsin was Republicans and they went 2 to 1 for Obama.
It will be important to bring them home in November or hte most liberal Senator in the US Senate loses.
“This guy [Obama] is very scary. Not only as a candidate as McCain will have a nearly an impossible time beating him, but also as, God forbid, President. THE MOST LIBERAL MEMBER OF THE U.S. SENATE. Good grief that is bad news. Couple that with his being incredible inexperienced and flat our naive/ignorant/wrong on foreign policy and we are in for a world of hurt. The words “abject disaster” come to mind. The incredibly scary thing is how many republican friends I have who buy into his vapid speeches. It is truly frightening.” - Wyatt’s Torch
A likely cause of the strong vote for Romney is the fact that the election was primarily contested through mail in "absentee" ballots. Many of the ballots could have been sent in weeks ago. IIRC correctly, I sent out my ballot shortly after the new year.
Huckabee is a spoiler, and that’s all he is.
After what the Clinton's foisted on the nation their first eight years, they should have been run out of town on a rail and had a difficult time venturing out in public, let alone be able to run for a third term.
Regardless of the polls, McCain does not have the ability to bit either Democratic candidate, though, Obama would be more formidable.
When Hunter and Thompson dropped out Romney got 75% support here on the ultimate conservative litmus test site FReerepublic. IOW, even though he was a third choice for many FReepers he still passed the conservative litmus test. Now, since Romney has dropped out Huckabee can only get 27% support here on FR. IOW, Huck doesn't pass the best conservative litmus test out there.
Thanks for the ping. I find it interesting that Huckabee has to stay in the race even though he continues to lose, just to prove it that he wasn’t in it to stop Romney. It serves Huckabee right, he must stay in just to lose so that he can save face.
Don’t you know? Huckabee’s setting himself up for 2012. :)
Seems to me the bigger story is that over 20% of Republicans would rather throw away their vote on a candidate whos no longer in the race, and who has even urged them to vote for McCain, than vote for McCain. That does not bode well for the GOP in November.
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I can see a “Reagan like” victory coming up for Obaman. Imagine replacing this sea of red with blue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ElectoralCollege1984-Large.png
I don't think you understand motives. I voted for Romney in the WA State primary not to impress Democrats, but to impress McCain that Conservatives are out there - and he needs to court us if he wants our participation.
I will vote for the Republican nominee in November. The fact it will be McCain does not excite me for a number of reasons; some of which are huge holes in his conservatism, and, not the least, my doubt that McCain has the energy and the inner fire needed to fight a Messianic figure like Obama!
I will support McCain if I see that he takes the offensive against O'bama's extreme liberalism and socialist leanings. I currently have my doubts that McCain has the heart to do that.
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