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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Are Hillary and Huckabee done?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee acknowledges that he “may be killing my political career” by remaining in the Republican presidential race after it’s long been evident that he won’t win the nomination.
Campaigning at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire, Huckabee said he may be finished in national politics “but I know this: if we don’t start thinking in terms of solving some of America’s problems, we’re killing all of your careers.”
Later when asked to elaborate, Huckabee said: “I’m just saying there are a lot of people who say I’m staying and creating problems for the party, and there are obviously people in the party who are unhappy that I’ve stayed.”
Staying didn’t matter much in Wisconsin and in Washington Tuesday. John McCain won easily in both and managed to split the conservative vote with Huckabee in Wisconsin.
On the Democratic side, Barack Obama socked away two more states — Wisconsin and Hawaii — putting his string of wins at 10. Hillary Clinton may be about a week away from finding herself in Huckabee’s position — under a great deal of pressure to concede for the party’s sake. She badly needs Texas and Ohio on March 4. Win those and she could make a race of it into the convention.
Her assaults on Obama are having an impact. A three-day Gallup tracking poll finds that she has cut his lead nationally from 7 points to 1. That covered the period where the Clinton campaign has accused Obama of plagiarizing speech material from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick
She needs some good news. Exit polls in Wisconsin reveal an erosion in her support among working-class whites and women. Hillary does best among the less-educated and the elderly. Obama has solid leads among independents, the well-to-do, voters with a college education and those who are very liberal.
Two questions here, one for those who expect to vote for the Democrat in November and one for those who intend to vote Republican. It’s strongly evident that the two parties represent sharply different directions for the country so nobody who’s been paying attention could be in doubt.
For Republicans: Is it time for Huckabee to pull the plug? I say let him go on; he’s no threat.
For Democrats: Is it over for Hillary?
