McCain Plays Nice With Huckabee

Source: The New York Times

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Senator John McCain continued his campaign of congeniality with former Gov. Mike Huckabee today when he said that it was fine with him if Mr. Huckabee challenged the results of Saturday’s Washington State caucuses. Party officials have declared Mr. McCain the winner by several hundred votes, but the Huckabee campaign says that 1,500 votes went uncounted.

“He certainly has the right to challenge if he chooses to,’’ Mr. McCain said at a morning news conference in Annapolis with Governor Robert Ehrlich of Maryland and other local officials. Nonetheless, Mr. McCain said that “it’s pretty clear that we won.’’

Mr. McCain, who is far ahead of Mr. Huckabee in delegates and remains the presumptive nominee, suffered embarrassing losses over the weekend to Mr. Huckabee in the Louisiana primary and the Kansas caucuses. Asked why voters persist in voting for Mr. Huckabee, Mr. McCain replied, “Because they like him.’’

Although Mr. Huckabee cannot mathematically win the nomination at this point, he has said he will remain in the race until Mr. McCain reaches the delegates that will put him over the top, 1,191. Until then, Mr. Huckabee remains a persistent, although friendly, competitor. The campaign of niceness between the two men has fed talk that Mr. Huckabee would be Mr. McCain’s running mate, but both have tried to tamp down the speculation.

Read more: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/mccain-plays-nice-with-huckabee/

McCain will figure that will win him the evangelical vote. However, both men are too liberal for the most conservative wing of the GOP. Here in NW Arkansas, the reddest part of the state, I've even seen anti-Huckabee literature.