Mitt Romney won the Iowa Straw Poll, with 32% percent of the vote, just as everyone expected him to. Millions of dollars can drive many buses, and Romney spent two million dollars on just this one contest. That however is not the real story.
Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, came in second in the Iowa Straw Poll, polling a respectable 18% of the votes.
At first glance, of course, that does not sound like that big a deal. It is, though, in a bunch of ways.
Bear in mind that, of all the candidates who took part in the Poll, which Giuliani and McCain bypassed, the only candidate who didn’t put a lot of resources into the event was-Mike Huckabee. He did not buy a lot of advertising time and for that matter did not even go to the trouble of bussing his supporters to the polls. That, of course, is traditional practice for the event. Altogether, Huckabee spent something like one hundred fifty two thousand dollars.
Despite this, and despite the fact that he was a victim of some negative television campaign advertising, he still pulled ahead of his next closest competitor, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who garnered 15% of the vote. Tom Tancredo got 14%, probably based on his well-known stand on illegal immigration, which also probably hurts him due to perception of him as a one trick pony.
I think Duncan Hunter came in fifth at something like 12%.
Everybody else came in single digits, and there is a good chance some of these candidates will be dropping put of the race. Most people think the next person to drop out will be Tommy Thompson who, like many of these candidates, should have known better than to get in this race.
So why is this so important? Well, it tells me that whoever gets the Republican nomination is probably going to seriously consider having Mike Huckabee for his running mate. For that matter, he could even end up being da man, based on the proposition that Social/Christian Conservatives distrust Romney, respectfully dislike Rudy's moderate position on social issues, hate McCain with a passion, and may well be tiring of waiting for Thompson.
However, if Giuliani, Romney, or Thompson either one does win the nomination, Huckabee has the right credentials as a running mate. He's obviously a good speaker and campaigner, is personable, and was a successful and popular governor of Arkansas.
He would provide regional balance to Romney as well as a sense of genuine conservatism. He might also light a fire under Thompson, whom many are starting to suspect may be little more than a Christian Conservative Trojan Horse. Fred Thompson the place-holder candidate much like Bob Dole in '96. In Thompson's case, he might well be put forward for the purpose of denying the nomination to Giuliani. Christian conservatives do, after all, tend to look at the New York mayor as a left-of-center moderate who would not be dedicated to their ideals. Still, if Giuliani was to pull it out, not only would Huckabee provide the same regional balance as with Romney, but a needed ideological balance as well.
He is a fiscal conservative without seeming to be a right wing thug. Having been a Baptist minister, he is a Christian without coming across as a Bible-thumping fanatic.
In the "this might be some kind of an omen" category, he also happens to be from Hope Arkansas, home of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who is also a fellow musician.
Yep, Huckabee is also a damn good bass player in a jazz rock band, so how bad can he be?
