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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

McCain shouldn't make Huckabee his running mate

It looks like Senator McCain's going to be the Republican nominee for President. And he looks like the person most likely to beat the Democrat in November.

But he may well toss that away, by making Mike Huckabee his running mate.

This move would lose him the election. Huck hasn't gotten good numbers outside the South, and is even more radioactive to secular economic conservatives than McCain is to culture-cons. Huck made a strategically wise choice to champion the Fair Tax in his Presidential run - it gave him a boost as a tax-fighter that he doesn't merit based on his record - but his governing history in Arkansas was basically pro big-government. And, while secular Americans will vote for a religious President, Huck is the sort of culture warrior and "religious professional" that scares away anyone who isn't an evangelical Christian. As a standalone Presidential candidate, my guess would be that Huck would be hard-pressed to get over 35% of the vote nationally, and he'd be unlikely to win any states outside the South.

For me, Huck is everything I dislike about Bush - "big government conservatism" - and has none of the elements that I liked: Bush's steadfastness in the War on Terror.

Just going by life expectancy, McCain has a 50-50 chance of dying in office, and we'd have a President Huckabee. The prospect of this would be enough to send many independents to Hillary or Obama.

Comments:
I found your blog and this post today, 5-13-08. In my inbox today was a blurb from NewsMax:

Source: Huckabee Tops McCain VP List

Seems McCain's determined to lose. First he panders to the global warmers, and now this. Chilling.
 
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