Mike Huckabee knows he can’t beat John McCain in the primaries but thinks he might be able to win a brokered convention with a little help from Texas.
In an interview with 1200 WOAI news during his swing through Texas, longshot Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee outlined a strategy which has him not winning the GOP nomination outright, but pushing the nomination to the September Republican National Convention, which he says will turn to him as the most ‘conservative alternative.’
The ‘brokered convention’ plan is in stark contrast to Huckabee’s previous sunny predictions of a sweep to victory in the primaries and caucuses on the shoulders of adoring family values conservatives.
Huckabee said his ‘brokered convention’ strategy is predicated on a victory in Texas, the country’s largest Republican state. “We think Texas is an important state,” Huckabee told me. “We know how important it is to win Texas.” Huckabee says with an upset win in Texas, and a win in the Ohio Republican primary the same day, Huckabee could deny front runner John McCain the nomination in the primaries.
“If we win Texas, I think it changes the dynamics of this race. It could well go all the way to the convention. If the convention delegates pick the president, chances are they would pick the most conservative. I would be the one they would end up picking, if that’s the criteria.”
McCain is less than 200 delegates away and Mitt Romney has already instructed more than that many of his delegates to vote for McCain. It’s just incredibly unlikely that McCain won’t win the nomination outright.
If, however, the allegations of adultery and improper dealings with a lobbyist leveled in yesterday’s NYT hit piece have legs or some other event causes pledged delegates to break their vow and vote for someone other than McCain, it’s virtually inconceivable that Huckabee would be the beneficiary. If the party’s leadership takes the nomination into their own hands, a Mitt Romney or some dark horse candidate would be the more likely choice than the divisive Huckabee.
The irony here is that Huckabee is down to the Hillary Clinton Strategy: Win Texas and Ohio and hope to steal it at the convention.
AllahPundit sees a different parallel:
This marks the point, I think, where he’s actually started to believe his own “never say die” rhetoric as a way of coping with the fact that the ship is going down. It’s like Klaus Kinski on the raft at the end of “Aguirre” telling the spider monkeys about his plan to rule the world.
He provides a handy video clip for those of us who have never heard of, let alone seen, “Aguirre.”
via Memeorandum
