The glorious thing about presidential politics in the US is that it really is an open process. An outsider really can come in and change the politics of the United States.
Last night two outsider candidates came in and beat the establishment, politics-by-the-numbers candidates.
Of course, Harvard-educated Barack Obama isn’t really such an outsider, and neither is Governor Huckabee. But they certainly cleaned the clocks of insiders Clinton and Romney.
In an NRO Roundtable Richard Brookhiser pointed out that Mike Huckabee is not a religious-right candidate in the mold of Pat Robertson.
In one important respect, Huckabee’s supporters have made a wiser choice than their soul-mates 20 years ago. Their man has been a governor and a lieutenant governor.
Of course, as Daniel Casse remarks, the left thinks that they’ll make hamburger out of Mike Huckabee.
I don’t know what Huckabee means for conservatism. But it promises a helluva party for the angry Left. Since Thanksgiving, the New York Times has been positively giddy about the possibility that the GOP was firmly in the hands of a genuine Bible-thumper.
If the Left thinks that, they had better be careful. The Democratic base may be violently secular, but the moderate general election voters are not. Mike Huckabee is a wily politician, and very good at negative politics. He could eat the Angry Left for lunch.
Going forward, I am reminded that for most of us, what matters most is that the candidates we don’t like lose.
On the Democratic side, I can live with Obama, but I really don’t like Edwards and Clinton.
On the Republican side, I can live with Huckabee, Romney, or Giuliani. But I really don’t like John McCain.
So I’m rooting for the independent voters to pile on for Obama in New Hampshire. Don’t disappoint me, fellas!
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