Huckabee won the first state of this Super Tuesday. West Virginia gave its 18 delegates to him.**
He upset heavily favored Romney to do so, and that may be a harbinger of things to come later tonight.
Romney, and his supporters have everywhere trumpeted the notion that a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain. Someone recently claimed this on one of my old posts. But that is not the truth.
Huckabee is not splitting the conservative vote between himself and Romney. The facts, from polling data, are that a majority of Huckabee supporters would actually go with McCain over Romney. I’d probably find myself in that category, even though I have serious reservations with McCain.
Plus Huckabee is only getting 24% of the Republicans who attend church regularly — only 1 point better than Romney. And both of them are getting a smaller support than McCain. [For proof see this post citing recent USA/Gallop polling numbers.]
So a vote for Huckabee is really a vote for Huckabee. It actually helps prevent a landslide McCain victory. That may not be preventable after today, we shall see. But today, you’ve got to get out and vote for Huckabee!
**Note while McCain’s supporters helped in Huckabee’s WV win, the rules of WV’s convention required a majority support for 1 candidate. It’s just simple politics, that’s all. No backhanded deal between Huckabee and McCain, like Romney’s insinuating.
