He's promoting John McCain every chance he can get. He's kicking and cutting Mitt Romney like an Arkansas chicken in a cock fight. And he doesn't have a chance of winning the GOP nomination -- Huckabee is in single digits nose-to-nose with Ron Paul among Republican voters who are not Baptist and/or evangelical. And the chances that John McCain will put Huckabee on the ticket are almost zero. Huckabee doesn't gain McCain any values voters, and he costs McCain voters in McCain's favored "independent" demographic.
So what is Huckabee's motivation? Well, it's not like Huckabee has been hiding his motivation. Again and again he's said that what drives him in the campaign is the thing most important to him, and again and again he's said what is most important to him is his theology. And he's used that theology to drive an identify-politics campaign that has attracted baptist or evangelical voters and almost no one else. But what no one will talk about but which is evident if you look at the exit polls is that Huckabee has used his theological identity politics as a wedge issue against Mitt Romney. Those who tell pollsters that it matters a lot that a candidates shares their same religion vote predominately for Huckabee -- and the person who almost never gets their vote is Mitt Romney.
It wasn't an accident that Huckabee spoke about the supposed Mormon belief that the Devil is Jesus's brother. It's not an accident that Huckabee has repeatedly identified himself as the leader of Christians in the race, leaving unsaid what doesn't need to be said among many Baptists and evangelicals -- that Mitt Romney is a leader in a religion of what they believe are non-Christians.
So Huckabee has told us that his theology drives his campaign, he's used his theological identity as his chief means of acquiring votes, and he's used his theology directly against Mitt Romney. So now with Huckabee not having a change of being President, and with Huckabee clearly campaigning against the strong-on-values / strong-on-judges candidate Romney and in favor of the weak-on-values / weak-on-judges candidate McCain, you've got to ask yourself what's going on here. And although no one wants to talk about the elephant in the middle of the room, I think we should talk about it.
John McCain is a knife-fighting, divorced fly-boy, but a conventional Christian. Huckabee is comfortable with that. But Huckabee has issues with the decent, hard working, good values, nice guy Mitt Romney. You've got to ask yourself what is up with that. And then when you recall the "Jesus and the Devil are brothers" stuff and Huckabee's keynote participation in the Salt Lake City convention of the Baptists which focused in part on the theological rivalry with the Mormon religion, a glimmer of things falling into place begins to emerge.
When it comes to assisting McCain and blocking Romney, it may be about what Huckabee has been telling us all along it's about. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when or if McCain with the aid of Huckabee takes the nomination from Romney, we should all be clear why and how this happened.
One thing to note -- in the West where people know and are comfortable with Mormons, and where people historically have tended to be more tolerant than in the rest of the country, you don't see the anti-Mormon vote so much among the Baptists and / or evangelicals. I'd be surprised to see McCain win a single state out West today besides his own state of Arizona, and he might even lose that.
So what is Huckabee's motivation? Well, it's not like Huckabee has been hiding his motivation. Again and again he's said that what drives him in the campaign is the thing most important to him, and again and again he's said what is most important to him is his theology. And he's used that theology to drive an identify-politics campaign that has attracted baptist or evangelical voters and almost no one else. But what no one will talk about but which is evident if you look at the exit polls is that Huckabee has used his theological identity politics as a wedge issue against Mitt Romney. Those who tell pollsters that it matters a lot that a candidates shares their same religion vote predominately for Huckabee -- and the person who almost never gets their vote is Mitt Romney.
It wasn't an accident that Huckabee spoke about the supposed Mormon belief that the Devil is Jesus's brother. It's not an accident that Huckabee has repeatedly identified himself as the leader of Christians in the race, leaving unsaid what doesn't need to be said among many Baptists and evangelicals -- that Mitt Romney is a leader in a religion of what they believe are non-Christians.
So Huckabee has told us that his theology drives his campaign, he's used his theological identity as his chief means of acquiring votes, and he's used his theology directly against Mitt Romney. So now with Huckabee not having a change of being President, and with Huckabee clearly campaigning against the strong-on-values / strong-on-judges candidate Romney and in favor of the weak-on-values / weak-on-judges candidate McCain, you've got to ask yourself what's going on here. And although no one wants to talk about the elephant in the middle of the room, I think we should talk about it.
John McCain is a knife-fighting, divorced fly-boy, but a conventional Christian. Huckabee is comfortable with that. But Huckabee has issues with the decent, hard working, good values, nice guy Mitt Romney. You've got to ask yourself what is up with that. And then when you recall the "Jesus and the Devil are brothers" stuff and Huckabee's keynote participation in the Salt Lake City convention of the Baptists which focused in part on the theological rivalry with the Mormon religion, a glimmer of things falling into place begins to emerge.
When it comes to assisting McCain and blocking Romney, it may be about what Huckabee has been telling us all along it's about. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when or if McCain with the aid of Huckabee takes the nomination from Romney, we should all be clear why and how this happened.
One thing to note -- in the West where people know and are comfortable with Mormons, and where people historically have tended to be more tolerant than in the rest of the country, you don't see the anti-Mormon vote so much among the Baptists and / or evangelicals. I'd be surprised to see McCain win a single state out West today besides his own state of Arizona, and he might even lose that.
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