Emily’s Take on Tuesday
Nathan Greene
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So I know this has been hashed out pretty much all day Wednesday, but here’s what struck me about Tuesday’s results.
First, while it is getting a good amount of press, I don’t think Huckabee’s domination of the South is truly getting the attention it deserves. I remember seeing a map a few days ago on Foxnews that was color-coded based on how Fox anticipated the Super Tuesday results. Only one state, Arkansas, was coded for Huckabee. All the other Southern states were supposed to go to Romney, and none of them did.
And not only did Romney not win these Southern states like he was supposed to, he didn’t even get second. He was usually a distant third.
Second, I found it a little ironic that, while Huckabee’s success is always, in the media’s eyes, attributable to support from evangelicals, I heard very few people mention that Romney’s success has tended to happen in places where there are a lot of Mormons, or places where he’s lived. (Apparently it’s OK for Mormons to vote for Mormons, but Evangelicals are being closed-minded when they vote for an Evangelical… same for women for Hillary and blacks for Obama.) I’ve heard Huckabee being called a “regional candidate,” but I think it’s better to be able to win a region than only being able to win places I’ve lived, like Romney.
Third, everyone who said that this was a two-man race, and that conservatives needed to vote for Romney rather than Huckabee, look like morons today. That includes just about every so-called conservative talk radio personality, self-proclaimed evangelical know-it-all Rob Schenck, and Rombot himself. Huckabee’s strength in the South would be much more helpful in the general election than Romney’s wins, which consist of states that will be blue in the general and states that have relatively low numbers of electoral votes.
I still don’t know if anyone can stop McCain from getting the nomination, but, at this point, I think Huckabee has a better shot than Rombot. Romney needs to take his ball and go home.
There are lots of other ways Romney could have cemented a grand legacy for himself other than being president. Just imagine what charity he could have done with that $50 million he’s spent on his presidential campaign. Too bad he wasn’t content to just do good in the world; he wanted power instead. Now, he’s going to have less money, less capacity to do good, and he’s basically been neutered of any potential power. Not much of a legacy.
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