The political prognostication website 538.com explains that Obama's supporters are more enthusiastic than McCains and suggests that the solution for McCain might be to put Mike Huckabee on the ticket to rev up evangelicals.
"It's certainly the simplest and most direct way for McCain to lock down the support and enthusiasm of that desperately-needed evangelical organizing engine."
Meanwhile, I've heard Democrats gleefully hoping (not praying) for a Huckabee selection because they think he'd be easy to caricature as a right wing yahoo.
Those who think Huckabee would help the ticket and those who think he would hurt both seem to be misunderstanding Huckabee's strengths and weaknesses.
Frirst, let's remember that Huckabee was NOT embraced by the evangelical establishment until late in the game because they viewed him as too liberal on too many things (mostly spending and crime). Rush Limbaugh didn't like him, nor did The Wall Street Journal types, nor did many other evangelical leaders. But he was pretty popular with rank and file evangelicals.
Huckabee is a transitional figure in the evangelical world, and possibly a transformational one. As a strong pro-life politician and former Baptist preacher, he is a familiar and not-loathed figure among the evangelical old guard. Beyond that, his emphasis on Christianity as an uplifting rather than judgmental faith taps into the zeitgeist of the New Envagelicals. Younger evangelicals in particular have become convinced that leading a Bible-based, Christ-centered life might involve helping the poor and the environment, in addition to battling abortion. In tone and substance, Huckabee fits these evangelicals better than any Religious Right leader ever has.
In other words, he may not appeal to James Dobson but he may appeal to rank and file evangelicals, and maybe even Obamagelicals.
My big question is this: the evangelical hierarchy may not control all the votes (as we saw in the primaries) but they do have a disproportionate impact on the evangelical volunteer apparatus. So would Huckabee be able to translate his popularity with ordinary eangelicals into votes for McCain if the evangelical leadership a) hates McCain and b) only sort of kind of likes Huckabee?
Full disclosure: Huckabee has signed on as a commentator with Fox News, which is owned by News Corp, which also owns Beliefnet.
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I have been a volunteer for hucksarmy since early January ane am still actively working to support Huckabee in WHATEVER he decides to do. As someone who as talked with thousands of voters on the phone and in person, I can tell you that Huckabee's appeal far exceeds evangelicals. He has a mix of supporters as diverse as the population itself, and to fail to recognize this is both a dissevice to Huckabee and to the country itself. Huckabee had much more to his campaign than the Right to Life and being against same sex marriage. He was the candidate who made the most sense on the economy, health care, immigration, and agreed with McCain on strong military and IRAQ. He was gutsy enough to endorse the FAIR TAX, a bi-partisan tax plan that would have a positive impact on the economy and has huge support in the field. I thought McCain would pick up on this but maybe he thinks it won't sit too well with the "Wall Street crowd" who wouldn't like the transparency of the plan....
They never have been, nor will they ever be. All that they care about are the fiscal leg of the party.
I really don't think much will change no matter who is VP on either side.
I don't think you should underestimate Huckabee, but now that he is on foxnews doesn't that make him unlikely to be VP????
imo its Bob Barr thats going to influence the election the most in some states he is getting 8-10% of the polls(if he is actually included).
Mike Huckabee was Governor of Arkansas for over 10 years. He is undoubtedly John McCain's best VP pick!
Survey USA took a series of polls to determine the VP candidate (out of Governor Huckabee, Senator Lieberman, Governor Pawlenty, and Governor Romney) who would help John McCain the most.
They took polls in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Virginia, California, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Alabama, Kentucky, and Missouri.
In almost every case, Governor Mike Huckabee did best. He even had a slight lead in Massachusetts where Romney was once Governor!
There have been five bellwether states - Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas - that have correctly predicted the winner of the General Election for each of the past eight elections (dating back to 1976). Of those, in the GOP Primaries, Huckabee won the popular vote in two of them (Arkansas and Louisiana), coming in second to McCain in the other three. McCain won the popular vote in three of them (Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky), coming in second to Huckabee in the other two. The margin between the two in the state of Missouri was extremely narrow. And in the state of Kentucky, Huckabee even managed to come in second to John McCain three and a half months after he suspended his campaign and endorsed McCain.
Governor Huckabee would be a great Vice President. Even Mitt Romney thinks so! At a town hall meeting back in December (before Iowa) he was asked what he thought of Huckabee as VP. Romney replied: "Sure, he’s a wonderful person... He’d make a great vice president."
I believe the best VP that McCain could choose is Mike Huckabee:
1. He actually has experience actually running a govt. (for 10+ years). Neither Obama nor Hillary nor McCain has that experience. It's important!
2. He is a man of integrity and character, whom McCain can trust.
3. He is solidly prolife and profamily. McCain needs to fire up and win over more "social conservatives."
4. Mike Huckabee is STRONG in the South, which is vital. Obama is strong there too. (Romney certainly isn't!)
5. Huckabee, like Reagan before him, is a Great Communicator.
6. McCain and Huckabee get along well and respect each other.
7. Huckabee is young, dynamic, energetic, intelligent, dedicated, and articulate. His supporters are even more fired up than Obama's are!
8. The country will then be in good hands for a long time.
9. During the debates, it was Mike Huckabee who gave the very best answer of what distinguished him from Obama.
10. McCain and Huckabee would balance each other's strengths and weaknesses very well. Huckabee would help McCain in some areas, and McCain could help Huckabee to learn from him in other areas.
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