Mike Huckabee became the first candidate to declare a victory on Super Tuesday as results from West Virginia’s complicated caucuses were released. Huckabee, Romney, and Ron Paul were the main candidates that courted voters at the state’s convention today.
It paid off big for Mike Huckabee. With voters still casting ballots in some close Southern states, a win like this might help encourage his supporters to stick with their man rather than voting for Mitt Romney or another candidate. Plus, Huckabee will be awarded the state’s entire slate of 18 delegates.
Huckabee defeated Mitt Romney by a 52-47 margin. This is also good news for John McCain, because it denies the delegate and momentum boost that Romney might have gotten out of a WV win.
Ron Paul appears to have recieved zero votes, despite speaking to the assembled delegates at the convention. That’s got to be a stinging blow to his campaign, which had targeted West Virgina as the possible site of an upset.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Woohoo!! Yes!!! that ought to shut up the establishment conservative talk show host and liberal media who have tried to shut Governor Huckabee out of the process…He beat the Romney money machine!!! & 18 delegates!!!The media does NOT make the decision–THE PEOPLE DO!!!
10 + years as Governor-& RE-elected 3 times vs Romney’s one term…HMMM…Huckabee has spent 7 million to Romney’s 87 MILLION …HMMM…OF COURSE Romney wants him out of the race DUH because like it or not Governor Huckabee is an experienced giant killer! He is about to take Romney down! In Governor Huckabee we FINALLY have a candidate,- who after all of the verbal stumbles of the Bush presidency can ARTICULATE Republican principles with warmth, wit, & wisdom. Remember the giant killer only picked up 5 smooth stones…can those be called geogia, alabama, tennesee, AR, Missouri? We will see—I sure hope so for our countries sake! If the republicans are smart and not stuck in their ways Huckabee SHOULD BE on the ticket in 08- but go aheaed and run someone without any charisma and see how bad you establichment know it all types get SMOKED by the demoncrats!!!
February 5th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
The reason Huckabee won was because McCain’s supporters all filed in line behind him, soley to stop Romney from winning. What a horrible display of bigotry and a lackluster character for them both. This poor display of corruption will haunt them for the rest of their political careers.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Give me a break! You know full well that Romney won the first round and only by combining Huckabee and Mccains votes was Huckabee able to pull it off. Romney has had to, in a sense, run a campaign of one against two. Huckabee and Mccain are like two bullies on a playground that know they can’t win on their own so they play dirty tricks together to try and take the stronger candidate, Mitt Romney, down. The people of this country are taking notice and will not stand for these kind of low brow tactics and it will be the undoing of both McCain and Huckabee in the end.
Vote for Mitt Romney so that we can have a man of class and integrity running the White House!
February 5th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
If McCain thinks another underhanded tactic will secure him the nomination, he underestimates the integrity of the american people. He lied about Romney’s record in the last day before Florida, so as to be able to spew his filth without allowing any time for retaliation. Now he is undermining the conscience of the electorate in West Virginia by manipulating the system, which overwhelmingly went toward Romney before McCain hit a backroom deal to undermine conservatism, AGAIN! The guy is a creep.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
McCain comes off, to this conservative liberal anyway, as a real Washington insider using the system to defeat the will of the people. Maninipulate the system to win the election. Well in this case not to win, but for his main opponent to lose the election. Time for the “Straight Talk Express” to explain himself.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Typical inside Washington dirty back room politics. McCain COULD NOT WIN, and Huckabee COULD NOT WIN, so McCain threw the election to Huckabee to deny the true leader in the state.
Disgusting.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I thought Romney said, “No whining?” The delegates have spoken in a resounding “Huckaboom.” When Fred Thompson stole our win in SC, why didn’t Romney speak of backroom deals then? He is a self-centered, non principled, power hungry phony!
February 5th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
squidget, how many sites are going to post on you pathetic troll?
Get over the fact that Romney not only cannot win this nomination, despite what Rush and Hannity think, and he certainly can’t win a general election.
For everyone condemning McCain, consider you are pulling for a the most politically expedient candidate besides Clinton in this race.
This is exactly what Mitt Romney deserves. Did he really think he could attack EVERY Republican candidate and not get some backlash?
If he did, and you think he doesn’t deserve this, then you are as obtuse as he is for thinking that people don’t recognize that he will say anything to get a vote.
If you are anything like that moron Coulter and thank Clinton or Obama would be better than McCain then pat yourself on the back because by voting for Romney, you are de facto voting for Socialized healthcare and a defeat in the War on terror, because he cannot win against either of them.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
The difference, Tim, is that SC didn’t have an initial vote which Huckabee won overwhelmingly. They didn’t follow that up with a second vote, and Romney didn’t make a back-room deal to vote for the candidate most likely to cause an upset. McCain voters voted for McCain, Huckabee supporters backed Huckabee, Thompson voters went for Thompson, and Romney’s electorate backed Romney, in South Carolina. That is fair. West Virginia, on the other hand, was clearly a manipulation. You can vote for Huckabee if you want, as is your right, but clearly you can see that this was a shrewd and dishonest tactic.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
It APPEARS that Ron Paul actually got 10% of the first round delegate votes. It APPEARS that Ron Paul’s delegates actually put Huckabee over the top. It APPEARS that Huckabee pledged 3 of the 18 delegates to Paul for the national convention. That’s got to be a stinging blow to the Romney/McCain delegates who did all the work and got nothing. That’s got to be a stinging blow to a wannabe journalist named Austin Cassidy.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Out of all the Republicans running, I’m happy to see Mike win. His support of the Fair Tax is something good.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
We noted the Ron Paul numbers in our later story.