The upset win by John McCain in Florida had two contributing factors. First, McCain clearly made a punch below the belt with his obvious lie about Mitt Romney's position on the Iraq War. Though McCain was called a liar by all major media outlets, the damaging accusation came too late for Romney to effectively respond. McCain's game of politics may have cost him dearly in the long run as true conservatives will now be more resolute about avoiding McCain for his "politics as usual" tactics.
Second, the late endorsement by Governor Charlie Crist clearly hurt Mitt Romney as people put their trust in their popular governor in making the final decision. Advantage McCain. Had McCain not blatantly lied during the campaign, many would have simply lined up behind McCain and called it a day. McCain's open lie, however, shows that the "straight talk" is more about winning, then being an honest leader of the GOP. Advantage Romney.
McCain has received every endorsement that a liberal Republican can get. The endorsement of the Governor of California and Rudy Giuliani does not speak well for what is happening to the GOP. The conservatives have been split and marginalized. The true principles of Reagan's conservative movement are being destroyed by McCain, who can only call himself a conservative on military issues, while being on the far left on every other principle.
Enter Romney and Huckabee. There has been great resentment on the part of Romney's loyalist against Huckabee for using religion as a weapon against Romney and to Huckabee's advantage. It has not been fair play on Huckabee's part. Politics, however, create strange bed-fellows.
Earlier Mr. Huckabee could have been seen as a running mate with McCain in November, but if Huckabee thinks this is going to happen now with the Crist endorsement, he needs to go back to his Karate studio and break some more bricks with his head. McCain owes Crist everything now, including a spot on the November ticket as his Vice President.
If Mr. Huckabee wants to be relevant now, he must make amends with Mitt Romney and try to bring the right wing of the party together. Mr. McCain could collect as many as 750 delegates on Super Tuesday. The only way to stop the looped track of the McCain Express is to join forces and create a showdown at the convention. McCain cannot win against a Romney-Huckabee alliance.
For Romney, he can deliver nearly thirty-five percent of the party now that Thompson is out. He represents the fiscal conservatives and many moral conservatives who believe Huckabee has not played fairly on the religion issue. Romney can also deliver the northeast and the southwest. For Huckabee, he can deliver the religious conservatives which represents on average fifteen percent of the party as well as a commanding majority in the southern states.
It is time to bring the GOP together. Two branches of the party can come to the table to win the day. Mr. McCain has no better chance of winning in November with Governor Crist, than Mr. Romney and Mr. Huckabee. Indeed, against Hilary Clinton, a Romney-Huckabee team would fair much better as it would isolate Clinton to New York and California as Florida would likely go to Romney-Huckabee, as well as most other states as Clinton's negatives would marginalize her to no more than 45% of the vote.
With success in Iraq and a stronger economic and moral message, this would be a difficult team to beat.
For the sake of the GOP, it is time we put Mr. Romney and Mr. Huckabee back together and defeat Mr. McCain and his political machine.
The best way for this to happen is for Mr. Romney and Mr. Huckabee to both keep in the race until the primary and make it known that this will be the ticket for conservatives. If they both focus their attention on Mr. McCain and drop their insults between themselves, then Mr. McCain's thugs won't be able to divide and conquer -- which is what has happened to date.
It will also allow Huckabee to win in the south as Romney focuses on the west and the northeast. Odds are Romney will enter the convention with more delegates than Huckabee, but regardless of whether Romney is at the top of the ticket or Huckabee, the other will have an opportunity in eight years to carry on the conservative message.
If McCain wins the nomination, the conservatives will stay home in November and without their support, McCain will lose the general election. He is not the right candidate for the GOP and he cannot be trusted with the conservative banner or the fiscal responsibilities of the office of President.
It is time that the Romney and Huckabee forces align and bring the party back to the center.
