Huckabee hopes for a miracle

[denise]

http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/02/ ... -for-dems/

McCain Says Huckabee Still Viable; Dems Face Presidential Showdown
by FOXNews.com
Friday, February 8, 2008

Facing a seemingly insurmountable lead in the race for the presidency, Mike Huckabee said he is not harping on delegate counts heading into Saturday’s GOP contests in three states.

“I’m more into miracles than math,” he said Friday. “Miracles, I understand. Math is a little harder. People have said, well, you’ve got to have anywhere from 70 to 80 percent of all the rest of the delegates. That’s assuming no other delegates leave the people they’ve supported so far. … But as we all know, a candidate can say one word, do one thing, have one particular moment that can end his whole career so, you know, I’m not saying I’m just driving behind (McCain) at the NASCAR race waiting for him to lose a tire. But crazier things have happened.”

Washington, Louisiana and Kansas hold GOP contests this weekend, and the former Arkansas governor and John McCain, who said Huckabee still is a viable threat, campaigned in Kansas on Friday.

Among the Republicans, McCain’s campaign officials say they expect to stay on the trail five to six days a week through March and April. Aides say the March 4 primaries would be their earliest chance to lock up the nomination with the needed 1,191 delegates. Mitt Romney’s exit from the race Thursday made McCain the unquestioned leader in the GOP race.

On the Democratic side, the race for the nomination will come down to some unfamiliar battlegrounds, and this weekend Washington state is the first of many unlikely scenes for a presidential showdown after Super Tuesday failed to mint a front-runner in the Democratic field.

Washington offers the most delegates of any of the four states holding Democratic contests this weekend. Washington and Nebraska hold caucuses Saturday, alongside a Louisiana primary, and Maine holds caucuses Sunday. The Virgin Islands also hold caucuses Saturday.

The contests offer 161 delegates total for the Democrats, and 78 of them come from Washington.

For Democrats, every delegate matters. Barack Obama was the only Democratic candidate to campaign in all four states voting this weekend, and both he and Hillary Clinton were barnstorming the Pacific Northwest.

Clinton visited Tacoma Friday, where she spoke to a crowd of about 4,000, mostly about health care.

She also urged shift workers to caucus for her Saturday.

“I need all of you to redouble your efforts to go to the caucuses tomorrow to be there to stand up for what we need in a president,” she said.

Clinton has the backing of Washington’s two female senators - which she touts in an ad running statewide — but Obama won the endorsement Friday of Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, whom both candidates had courted.

She stumped for him at a massive 20,000-person rally in Seattle, where Clinton had been the day before.

“It is time for us to have hope, not fear; it is time for us to believe again. It is time for us to unite America. It is time for us to lead the world,” said Gregoire. “And my fellow Washingtonians, there is one person in America that I firmly believe can do all that and that man’s name is Barack Obama.”

After touring a mechanical contracting company Friday morning, Obama said Washington would be “very important,” since the race will be close across the country.

“On Saturday if we come out of here with momentum and additional delegates, that will lay the groundwork for (future primaries),” he said. “Washington has a lot of delegates at stake and will impact how the contest is viewed.”

Though convention delegates are still being tallied, the 22 states that held Democratic contests on Super Tuesday left the Democrats in a dead heat. The latest tallies show Clinton with 1,045 and Obama with 960 - 2,025 are needed to seal the nomination, leaving the candidates in a state-by-state quest for supporters.

In Washington, though the state has a history of electing women to high office, polls favor Obama, and his anti-war stance could play well to the largely anti-war population.

“The key issue in this state is the war,” said Seattle Pacific University’s Reed Davis. “We have a long history in Washington state of anti-war activism, so that’s why Obama is favored to win the caucuses tomorrow.”

He’s also shown an ability to fare well in smaller, caucus states.

Obama said the reason for that is “we have enormous enthusiasm among our supporters. They’re not casual voters … they are more likely to come out to a caucus.”

He said the caucus states have mostly been smaller states where he can meet more voters, allowing him to fight against “that Clinton brand name.”

Despite the dead heat, both candidates have been trying to play the role of underdog.

A Clinton fundraising e-mail asked for help in defeating Obama and “his virtually unlimited funds.”

Both candidates plan to be in Maine Saturday, while Bill Clinton and Obama have already campaigned in Louisiana.

Though in unfamiliar electoral territory, the candidates resorted to well-trodden themes, trading accusations Friday over health care.

Clinton said in Tacoma, “When it comes to universal health care, my opponent is saying, ‘No we can’t.’ Well I say, Yes we can … if we make the right decision in this election.”

“Yes we can” is one of Obama’s campaign mantras. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in response that the Illinois senator offers universal health care as well, only his plan would do more to cut costs and would not mandate coverage like Clinton’s.

[denise]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trai ... aucus.html

Huckabee Wins Kansas Caucus

By Michael D. Shear
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee easily won the Kansas caucus Saturday, defeating John McCain despite the Senator's vast lead among delegates in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

With about half of the Kansas precincts reporting, Huckabee is on track to win with 61 percent of the vote, well ahead of McCain's 24 percent and 11 percent for Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

The vote for Huckabee is another sign that McCain has yet to win over the nation's conservative, heartland voters despite having dispatched most of his rivals during the first five weeks of the year.

Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney both dropped out of the race, essentially conceding the nomination to McCain.

But Huckabee has refused, saying again Saturday that he will stay in the race until either he or McCain has the number of delegates required to clinch the nomination at the party's national convention in Minnesota in early September. Huckabee has 198 delegates, compared to McCain's 719, but he rejected the idea that he can't win.

In an speech to conservative activists in Washington Saturday morning, he said "I didn't major in math," he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting. "I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them."

Huckabee has decided to continue his improbable campaign in the face of a Republican party that finally seems willing to coalesce around McCain after a year in which many conservatives eyed him warily.

In the last several days, a steady stream of party leaders, elected officials and others have endorsed McCain, giving his candidacy the aura of inevitability.

But Huckabee told reporters after his speech that he will wait until he or McCain wins the needed 1,191 delegates. "I won't drop out until at least that happens," he said. "Then we'll see."

[denise]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/09/ ... index.html

Obama sweeps, Huckabee hangs tough

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Many voters in Saturday's Republican contests showed they're not yet ready to support Sen. John McCain as their party's nominee while Sen. Barack Obama cut into Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead in the race for Democratic delegates.


Illinois Sen. Barack Obama swept the Democratic contests on Saturday, according to CNN projections.

Obama claimed victory in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington on Saturday, as well as in the Virgin Islands.

"The stakes are too high and the challenges are too great to play the same old Washington game with the same old Washington players and expect a different result," Obama told a hugely supportive crowd of Democrats at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Richmond, Virginia.

"People want to turn the page. They want to write a new chapter in American history." Video Watch Obama rally in Virginia »

Clinton has 1,100 delegates and Obama has 1,039, according to CNN calculations.

Obama leads in pledged delegates -- 908 to 877 -- but Clinton's superdelegates -- 223 to 131 -- give her the overall lead.

"If I'm your nominee, you will never have to worry that I will be knocked out of the ring, because I do have strength and experience to lead this country, and I am ready to go toe-to-toe with Sen. McCain whenever and wherever he desires," Clinton said Saturday. Video Watch Clinton address supporters »

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee upset front-runner McCain in Saturday's Republican contests. What do the results mean? »

The former Arkansas governor beat McCain in Kansas by nearly a 3-1 margin.

Huckabee also took Louisiana, narrowly edging out McCain, according to CNN projections.

With both Huckabee and McCain falling short of the 50 percent mark, the 20 delegates will be allocated at next Saturday's Louisiana state GOP convention.

In Washington state, the Republican caucuses were too close to call.

Huckabee's Saturday wins show that Republicans are necessarily following in line behind McCain, the Arizona senator and presumptive nominee.

"People across America are gravitating toward our campaign and realizing that there is still a choice. And that's what we've said all along, that this race is far from being over," Huckabee said after the first results came in.

Obama and Huckabee have done well in caucus states like Iowa, where grass-roots efforts are more likely to have greater influence.

Obama also picked up a boost in Washington with the endorsement of the state's governor, Christine Gregoire.

Saturday's races marked the first contests without former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who suspended his campaign Thursday.

But Huckabee faces a daunting challenge. McCain has a significant lead in the delegate count after Super Tuesday. Huckabee has 217 delegates to McCain's 714, according to CNN calculations.

Even if Huckabee wins every remaining state with 50 percent of the vote to McCain's 40 percent, McCain would still be the nominee.

"The other scenario... if he kept winning by large margins could he keep John McCain short of the line? That is a more probable scenario, but still an unlikely scenario," said CNN chief national correspondent John King.

"I know the pundits, and I know what they say: The math doesn't work out," Huckabee said Saturday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. "Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles. And I still believe in those, too."

A senior McCain adviser said they were not surprised by the results in Kansas.

"There are more caucus states we will probably lose, but our campaign is focusing on a transition from front-runner to nominee," he said.

McCain spent part of Saturday making calls in a bid to shore up conservative support for his campaign, according to CNN's Dana Bash.

Huckabee scored wins in the Southern states of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and his native Arkansas on Super Tuesday, and social conservatives in Louisiana might mobilize behind him and send a message to McCain.

Huckabee pulled off a stunning win in the Iowa caucuses, the product of a grass-roots movement, and both Kansas and Washington are caucus states.

Huckabee said Saturday that the $250,000 his campaign had raised online in 24 hours was a sign of the health of his presidential effort.

Louisiana, still suffering from Hurricane Katrina, could be a key political state this year -- something not lost on both Democratic campaigns as they drum up last-minute votes.

On the Republican side, Huckabee was in Kansas on Friday. He attended rallies in Olathe, Wichita, Topeka and Garden City.

McCain, meanwhile, held a national security roundtable in Norfolk, Virginia, and later traveled to Wichita, Kansas. Afterward, it was off to Seattle.