I think his real strategy is to hope McCain croaks before the convention, leaving him as the default.
I love my country and it’s heritage except that I do not want to be told by my government when to bow my head. I can’t make it any plainer than that.
We would be no better off with Huck than McCain.
Or gets in a snit about something and throws a major temper tantrum in front of the cameras. That could still happen.
I'm not crazy about the Huckster, but I'd much rather get stuck with him than McCain.
Even if McCain dies, Huckabee won’t be the choice. Probably not Thompson or Romney either, although Romney probably has the best claim to it, having been ahead of the others in both delegates and popular vote at the time he suspended his campaign.
In fact, I am betting it would be Rudy Giuliani. Remember, you are talking about McCain having a strong majority of delegates. I’m sure some of those delegates chose McCain for his conserative differences with Giuliani, but most are probably more on the moderate side and would be just the kind of people you’d expect to jump to the guy they THINK is the 2nd-most electable.
Of course, Rudy did SO badly in the primary that they probably would see him as unelectable as well, but then the question is, who else is there in the republican party who has any proven ability to compete in enough states to win a nomination?
In 2000, there was really just McCain and Bush. in 2004, just Bush. In 1996, there was really nobody, which is how we ended up with Bob Dole.
If you were king, and McCain was gone, and you had to decide which conservative, or even which republican, had the best shot at getting majorities in enough states for an electoral college victory, in a 2-month election race, who would you choose?
You’re probably right.