Posted on 01/06/2015 1:59:54 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
His coalition of evangelicals could be broken up by new alternatives like Ted Cruz.
Mike Huckabee loyalists still believe their guy was screwed in 2008.
After pulling off an impressive upset of the better-funded Mitt Romney in the Iowa presidential caucuses, the former Arkansas governor eyed a second Republican primary win in South Carolina.
His allies are convinced the Palmetto State should’ve been his for the taking – if not for the peculiar, lethargic candidacy of former Sen. Fred Thompson, a friend of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who siphoned conservative voters from Huckabee in South Carolina.
Thompson’s 16 percent slice of the vote there was enough to push McCain past Huckabee by only 3 percentage points. Three days later, Thompson called it quits and McCain had a bolt of momentum.
“Fred Thompson was in there for that reason,” asserts David Lane, an influential California-based evangelical organizing pastors nationwide to participate in politics. “He was there to stop Huckabee. McCain then won Florida the next week. If Huckabee had won South Carolina, he would have been the nominee in 2008 and would have beat [Barack] Obama.”
Though Lane makes a compelling point, it’s surely an arguable one. Newt Gingrich’s 2012 primary victory in South Carolina over Mitt Romney proved fleeting, as the establishment band of the party rushed in with resources to crush Gingrich in Florida and beyond. The same could’ve happened to Huckabee....
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Big spending, soft on crime, wishy-washy foreign policy. Yeah, that sounds like a 2008 Redux for Mike.
Hindsight - it's not all it's cracked up to be...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.