Mitt Romney may have withdrawn from the field, but Mike Huckabee says he’s in it to stay:
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s campaign said Thursday the former governor will continue his campaign for the Republican nomination even now that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has left the race.
A spokeswoman for Huckabee said the campaign plans to “press forward.”
“We know it’s an uphill climb, but we knew that a year ago when we announced,” said Kirsten Fedewa, a Huckabee spokeswoman.
With Romney out of the race, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is considered by most to be the presumptive frontrunner.
Other than wanting to stay in and be a voice for his supporters, I’m not sure what Huckabee’s game is at this point. He’s not going to win and he’s not going to force a brokered convention. He may slow down McCain’s coronation but he’s not going to stop it. More importantly, when Romney withdrew yesterday, he characterized his decision as being based on his desire to not further damage the Republican Party in its efforts to defeat Clinton or Obama. By staying in, Huckabee is subjecting himself to the criticism that he is putting himself and his ambitions ahead of the party and the country (you could say the same thing about Ron Paul, but he has his own reasons for running, and nobody is going to pay attention to him from this point on anyway).
On the other hand, you could also say that the Huckabee campaign is the last gasp of the religious conservatives:
James Dobson, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical Christian leaders, is about to endorse former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, The Associated Press has learned.
Dobson, founder of Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Focus on the Family, talked to the GOP presidential hopeful Thursday and later was to release a statement explaining his choice, said Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for Dobson.
Huckabee had long sought Dobson’s endorsement, believing he is the best fit to advance Dobson’s conservative, moral worldview.
Until now, Dobson had never endorsed a GOP presidential hopeful during the primary campaign. But he ruled out front-runner John McCain in a blistering commentary on Super Tuesday, and on Thursday the fight for the GOP nomination narrowed to a two-man race between McCain and Huckabee, who is far behind in the delegate count but pledged to fight on. Mitt Romney, a third hopeful trying to claim the conservative label, dropped out of the race Thursday.
With Pat Robertson originally backing Giuliani and the rest now falling in line behind McCain, the social conservatives are quickly becoming irrelevant to the GOP in 2008.
