Huckabee's New Goal: A Deadlocked GOP Convention

Posted by Richard Blair, The All Spin Zone at 8:33 AM on February 23, 2008.

Against all odds, Mike Huckabee is still in the GOP race. What's his motivation? A Veep spot on the McCain ticket? That'll never happen. No, Huck's still reaching for the brass ring, but via a different route...

It's interesting that the GOP nomination has come down to two candidates who, six months ago, no one thought had a chance. John McCain was left for roadkill on the highway, his campaign was in disarray, and he was out of cash. Mike Huckabee was polling beneath Ron Paul, and he was viewed as largely a fringe issue candidate. Neither of these guys inspired the true controllers of the GOP: the bagmen and corporate water carriers.

A strange thing happened. The guy that the controllers really wanted (9iu11iani) flamed out early, when his escapades as mayor of New York became public. The other guy that the controllers could get behind (Mitt Romney) was a Mormon, and never really had a shot, no matter how much they fooled themselves.

Then, the fundies started squawking. Dobson and his fringe fundamentalist flying monkeys said that there was no way they could vote for morally damaged goods such as 9iu11iani, or a cult follower like Romney, or an un-conservative maverick such as McCain. So, the voters went to the poll, and (marginally) rebuked the fundies, finding McCain to be the most acceptable. But Huckabee hung around, because his support was bedrock and unmoveable. And even as the others fell by the wayside, Huckabee remained standing. Heck, he even took a few days off the campaign trail to fly to the Caribbean.

As McCain piled up the victories, the million dollar question in the legacy media became: why is Huckabee staying in, when he has virtually no shot at collecting enough delegates in the remaining primaries to sew up the nomination?

The answer came today in a Huckabee interview on WOAI radio in San Antonio, Tx.:

In an interview with 1200 WOAI news during his swing through Texas, longshot Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee outlined a strategy which has him not winning the GOP nomination outright, but pushing the nomination to the September Republican National Convention, which he says will turn to him as the most 'conservative alternative.'

The 'brokered convention' plan is in stark contrast to Huckabee's previous sunny predictions of a sweep to victory in the primaries and caucuses on the shoulders of adoring family values conservatives...

I'm not surprised. But what I am surprised about is that Huckabee was willing to go public with this strategy, and make his intentions known. With the Texas GOP primary in the wings, where Huck will certainly garner a lot of support, the strategy might be smart like a fox. His goal, at this point, is to deny McCain the total number of delegates that he needs on a first - and second - and third - nomination vote at the convention.

He's looking to deadlock the convention, and then in a weird kind of Jesus-fueled optimism, expects the convention delegates to break for him. With McCain's current problems, Huck's strategy might not be so far fetched.

Tagged as: huckabee, mccain, republican party, gop convention

Richard Blair is the blogmaster of All Spin Zone.