Mitt will have to overcome the double digit lead Palin has on him among conservatives and Republicans according to several months of PPP polls to prevail over her in the South and the Midwest. 40% of the delegates come from the 11 Dixie states and Kentucky and Oklahoma.
The $64 dollar question: will Huckabee run?
Romney will pay Huckabee to run. Huckabee is more jealous of Palin than he is resentful of Romney.
I don’t know if Huck will run, but if he had any savvy he would sit this one out and throw hit support behind Sarah Palin. Of course his evil plan would be to hope that Sarah would lose to Romney, and that Romney would lose to Obama. The idea would be that Huck could come back in 2016 and claim that it is his turn this time, and that he did all he could do to get a Republican elected in 2012. The problem with Huck is that he always wants instant gratification, so he probably will not employ this strategy.