Mitt Romney is obviously getting frustrated by the fact that he and Mike Huckabee are competing for the same voters:
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is calling on Mike Huckabee to drop out of the race.
Romney has recently expressed concern that Huckabee will peel off enough conservatives to deprive him of victory over McCain in Super Tuesday’s Republican nomination contests in 21 states.
And Mike Huckabee responded and he wasn’t too impressed by the request:
Asked why he was more critical of Romney than McCain, Huckabee said he “appreciated” how McCain recognizes him as a “worthy competitor and not as a nuisance.”
“John McCain has not suggested that somehow he has a right to the nomination and I should quit because I’m in his way.”
Huckabee said, by contrast, Romney is making the “suggestion that I ought to step aside and allow him to waltz to the nomination.”
“Frankly I’ve been a little offended.”
Frankly, I don’t know what game Huckabee is playing. He obviously isn’t going to get the nomination and there’s some degree of merit to the idea that a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain:
Romney has spent much of the past week working to undermine the case for Huckabee’s candidacy. Appearing on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” show Friday, Romney said, “Most people recognize that a vote for Mike Huckabee is a vote for John McCain.” Exit polls in early-voting states have been inconclusive on that argument: Some Huckabee backers have cited Romney as their second choice, while others favored McCain.
“There’s no question but that his voters are voters that in large measure that would come to me,” Romney continued. “That’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m not going to cry about that. . . . If they want John McCain as their nominee, why, that’s exactly what that vote would do.”
Nonethless, though, there’s a fair amount of merit to the argument that Romney isn’t much more of a conservative than John McCain. Any examination of his record as Governer would demonstrate that. That’s why he was going nowhere until two weeks ago., but that doesn’t really matter.
There’s really only one reason that conservatives are rallying around Mitt Romney right now, and that’s because he isn’t John McCain.
February 4th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Listen up, ONLY a vote for MITT ROMNEY in Republican primaries is a vote AGAINST MCCAIN, a loser that is being aggressively imposed on us by the establishment and the “mainstream” media. By casting your vote on ANY OTHER candidate you will be helping MCCAIN to win the Republican nomination.
February 4th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’m for MITT ROMNEY!