romney vs. huckabee

The BBC, NY Times, and Rush Limbaugh all agree that Mike Huckabee is now in the race solely to piss off Mitt Romney. I don't buy that argument. I think Huckabee is in the race because, at this point, he can't lose.

First off, Huckabee is cool. He plays bass. He stumps with Chuck Norris. He's from Arkansas--fat city--but has a diet plan that works, called "Get Off Your Fat Ass and Exercise." Personal responsibility is so retro, it's cool. He has the best slogans, bar none. "I Like Mike." Awesome.

Obviously, Huck, Baptist minister that he is, is cleaning up the evangelical / fundamentalist vote. But I can't say that he's "stealing" those votes from Romney. I think it doubtful that, pre-Huck, the Christian Right viewed a Mormon (and one intent on being fairly vague about his religious commitment, at that), as their torchbearing candidate. Especially when you throw in statements made by the Mitt of MA gov days on same-sex unions etc.

In sum, the argument that Romney is being blocked out by Huckabee only works if you take Mitt's word that he is, and has always been, a true social conservative. The person standing in Romney's way is, and has been, Romney himself.

Back to Huckabee: the man can't lose. He's young (or seems so), which means that as long as he can run a good campaign, he'll be around for another election. And, let's face it: he's winning actual states with actual delegates--if trends continue, he may be the second-place Republican by the end of the night. So he has a shot at winning, for real.