GOP Down to McCain or Huckabee Amid Field of Kooks

Posted by William K. Wolfrum, Shakesville at 7:52 AM on January 4, 2008.

Well, that was easy enough. Because while the big pundits all say not to put too much weight on the Iowa Caucus, I'm not a big pundit. I'm a small pundit, you see. A "pundi" as they were called in ancient Greece, where the grand "Pundits" spoke loudly in front of big audiences, while the "Pundis" sat on their own porch, murmuring to the cat.

I am pundi. You are my cat. And after Iowa, the GOP race is now down to Huckabee or McCain, says I. For the GOP, the Iowa Primary was significant beyond compare.

Now I know Giuliani has his strategy, or whatever, but the best thing for him this week was that he was out of the public eye. Because soon, he'll start speaking and doing things in public, and people will check on his past, and it will be found that he strangled some dude in a coke deal, or something awful like that. This is why Donald Trump would never run for an office. Giuliani is the Donald Trump Candidate. And the more people get to know him, the more horrified they'll be.

Aside from that, Romney showed that he has yet been able to prove to Republicans that he has taken every one of his core beliefs and changed them. Thompson did Ok, but his "Hey, I'll take the Presidency if you want to give it to me," style has not really appealed to mainstream America.

For the GOP, the winners are clear. Mike Huckabee and John McCain. Let the "Big Pundits" say Iowa doesn't mean anything, but for the GOP, at least, it certainly did.

Basically, for the GOP, the situation is this - Mike Huckabee is going to win this damned thing. And maybe it's time to start supporting a man who can beat him in McCain.

Yeah, McCain only got 13 percent, but about two months ago, everyone though he'd dropped out. I wrote him off myself. It was the thing to do. But now he's back. And re-re-re-packaged himself as the only old-school Republican of the bunch. The fact that he's completely out of touch and will be 78 is nothing compared to the other candidates. They are as kooky a group as you'd find in the kountry of Kookyland on Planet Kook during "Who's the Kookiest Group Day."

But, Huckabee, a theocrat who outkooks them all, has something the others don't - God. And he's putting it to good use. By the end of the campaign, his commercials will be nothing but neon images of his face, the face of Christ, and the Bible, while "Amazing Grace" plays.

But Iowa showed us all that Huckabee is not a joke. He's the real thing. Just, what, a week ago, news came out that he'd allowed - based on partisan thinking -a convicted rapist out on parole, and then the rapist went out and raped and killed more? Didn't that just happen? No sweat, Huckabee in a landslide in Iowa, where you'd think they'd oppose that sort of behavior.

Huckabee's a force. And all they have to stop him with is McCain. Because a Huckabee nomination? Well, you ain't seen Kooky yet.

Tagged as: mccain, republican party, huckabee

Wolfrum is a regular blogger for Shakesville