From John Ellis…
What New Hampshire delivered last night was a revitalized Sen. John McCain, which makes Michigan a three-way race, which makes Gov. Huckabee’s campaign there viable. If ever there was an electorate that is ripe for Gov. Huckabee’s mix of economic populism and compassionate Christianity, it’s down-trodden Michigan Republican primary voters. McCain won there in 2000 with strong support from Independents and he will direct all of his efforts at getting those independents to double down, one last time. Romney will throw everything he has at Michigan, to avoid elimination. Given a McCain surge and a Romney splurge, it’s not hard to imagine a three-way split, with Huckabee doing surprisingly well in the collar counties around Detroit and drawing from the well of his base in the western and northwestern counties. Who knows, he might even win Michigan, which would set up South Carolina for a kill.
With McCain now anointed by clueless Washington scribes as the putative front-runner, the Arizona Senator must compete in South Carolina, because he will be expected to and because he has some unfinished business there from the 2000 campaign. Former Senator Fred Thompson has announced that he too will make a stand in South Carolina, although this may be moot by week’s end. Romney will compete there, at least with negative television commercials, if only to cut McCain. The net result of all of that will likely be a convincing Huckabee victory, which should solidify Huckabee’s lock on the Southern primary states and enable his campaign to poach in border states, in the Midwest and in the Rocky Mountain States.A strong Huckabee showing in Michigan and a convincing win in South Carolina would set up a showdown with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in Florida, one that Huckabee could afford to lose. Indeed, he might even want to lose it, if only to fatten Giuliani up for his eventual slaughter on the altar of social conservatism. Again, the longer Huckabee faces two “not Huckabee” candidates, all of whom are alien or anathema to the GOP’s core Sunbelt/Christian constituencies, the more likely it is he will eventually emerge victorious in the final showdown, wherever that might occur.
Jon Martin weighs in…
Likewise, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabeee, after coming in third in New Hampshire, will be looking for a chance to prove that his Iowa victory was not a field-of-dreams aberration. If the former Baptist preacher can’t succeed in Baptist-heavy South Carolina with other candidates splitting the vote, he likely can’t do any better in demographically more diverse Florida.
While I think we will do well in Michigan I don’t think we will win…(I don’t really know to tell the truth)…But SC is looking to be the battleground…I’d say we need to go all in on SC…
