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Mathematical Impossibility

25 February 2008

That’s a phrase being thrown around quite a bit these days. It is pointed out that, even if Mike Huckabee wins every single uncommitted delegate from here on out, he will still be some 200 delegates short of the nomination. What isn’t mentioned is that under those circumstance, McCain will also be some 200 delegates short of the nomination.

Now I’m not some neophyte who’s counting on anything being possible. I very much recognize that there is virtually no chance at all for Mike Huckabee to secure the nomination. For all intents and purposes John McCain has it sown up. I just think that the rhetoric surrounding “mathematically impossibility” should be accurate.

All this talk is predicated by the notion that Huckabee should drop out “for the good of the party” but who defines that good? The assumption is that it is good for the party to allow McCain to stop worry about about the primaries and concentrate on winning in November. There may be some merit to that line of thinking but I don’t think it should prevail. As Huckabee has rightly pointed out, there are still a lot of Republican voters who haven’t had the opportunity to have their voices heard.

The fact is, Huckabee isn’t staying in the race to win at this point, although it is theoretically possible for him to do so. In the unlikely scenario where Huckabee actually does win every delegate going forward, we’d have a brokered convention and Huckabee would be in a pretty good position. But I think Huckabee is angling for influence at the convention. That certainly isn’t unprecedented.

Over the last decade we’ve seen the Republican Party slowing move more and more to the left. That’s precisely why the GOP suffered such losses in ’06. We need people like Huckabee working to exert influence at the convention to move the party back to the right. Left to its own devices, the party is likely to continue its leftward tilt and that isn’t good for the party or the country.

I’m still pulling for Mike Huckabee, not because I think he can win, but because I want him on the podium at the convention. I want his perspective represented. I want a strong voice for the sanctity of life, for traditional marriage and for the FairTax. While Huckabee can’t win, he can have influence and we really need such influence right now.