The McCain-Huckabee Ticket - Did They Make a Deal?
| January 5, 2008 | 6:07 pm | Business & Politics
If you have been following the 2008 Presidential campaign, you now know that Mike Huckabee trashed Mitt Romney in Iowa, 34% to 25%. And if you have been following the campaign, you also know that the next big state in the race, New Hampshire, is a fight between Mitt Romney and John McCain. If Mitt loses New Hampshire, you can expect his campaign to spiral downward into oblivion. His cash and his organization could not beat a campaign that only broke into the mainstream three weeks ago (Huckabee) and a campaign that imploded during the summer and has now been resurrected from the dead (McCain). This is what you get for always changing your stances on issues. Do you have any core values, Mr. Romney?
It’s obvious from just watching the candidates interact that Romney and Huckabee loathe each other. Ed Rollins, Huckabee’s campaign manager, sums up the mood between the two camps very well: Ed Rollins wants to punch Romney’s teeth out. Oh, and he wants to shoot him in the groin. Ouch. The same animosity exists between McCain and Romney’s camps as well, and you will see that come out in the coming days as Romney tries to wrest New Hampshire from McCain’s grip.
If you saw the last debate, McCain and Huckabee were not attacking each other, but were pounding Romney instead. They also have defended one another from Romney’s attacks, praising each other in the process. I’ve been watching the interactions between McCain, Huckabee, and Romney in recent weeks. I’ve been talking to friends I have in Washington (I used to work for Congress), and I’ve been following the commentary. You know what? From all of this, I firmly believe that McCain and Huckabee made a deal: team up together, and if one of us wins, the other’s the runningmate.
Yes, McCain-Huckabee or Huckabee-McCain. Now think about how much sense this makes . Say McCain wins the nomination. He has foreign policy down, but he needs someone who can cover him on taxes, immigration, and can turn out evangelical voters. Huckabee can do all of these things, with his support of the Fair Tax and his clear support among evangelicals (80% of them voted for Huckabee in Iowa). If Huckabee wins, he needs someone who has foreign policy credentials. McCain’s the perfect fit. Huckabee has the south. McCain has the west.It’s a match made in heaven, and both candidates knew it. So they made a deal to destroy Romney, compliment each other, hold off on attacks, and agree that if one became the presidential nominee, the other would become his Vice-President. And what a deal it was. Romney had a knife driven into the heart of his campaign strategy. And watch the debate tonight and tomorrow: Huckabee and McCain will NOT attack each other. They will pound on Romney and still come out looking “positive.”I think it’s more likely that McCain wins the nomination, due to his larger name recognition, his ability to draw away Guiliani voters, and his foreign policy credentials. I’m here to tell you, then, that you WILL see a McCain-Huckabee ticket when Republicans officially elect their candidate in June.Now we must wonder: Who will Obama choose as his runningmate?
