As I was reading more on the results of the Florida primaries tonight (” McCain wins Florida, Giuliani expected to drop out“), I ran across the following quote about Huckabee:
Huckabee told his supporters he was “playing all nine innings of this ball game.”
“Even the Cardinals occasionally have a rough inning, but they know how to win championships,” he told a crowd in Missouri.
I thought a week or so ago the campaign was saying they didn’t have enough cash to even carry them through the Florida primary, had cut salaries, and they were losing staff at a rapid clip. Last minute boost in contributions maybe?
In any case, I’m glad to see that some of the candidates want to stick with it even in the face of poor results thus far. It seems to me that dropping out at least before Super-Duper Tuesday (or “Goodbye Ruby Tuesday” as Joe Lance at TennesseeTicket.com is now calling it) is a bad idea. There’s just too much that can change over the course of the primary season.
I wish Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani were sticking with us at least through next week. I’m glad to see Huckabee is (or at least he says he is).
I also think its disappointing that guys like Giuliani, Thompson and now Edwards are not sticking it out at least until Super Duper Tuesday…and even then you’ve still got the other half of the country to go!?! The demographics of states like IA, NH, SC and FL are so not alike! I’m sure there are a lot of different reasons they’re dropping out — cash on hand, conviction (or lack therof), cynicism/realism about not being the “chosen” one — all of which I think point to a cultural problem (i.e., the electorate) as much as a systematic one (i.e, media, gov’t, etc.). Who we elect is a reflection of ourselves. In other words, we get what we deserve, don’t we?
On a related topic, I’m not too much of a fan of the “winner take all” approach to awarding delegates in Florida. I’m also becoming a fan of caucuses, too.
Scott,
You are absolutely right …
I think the candidates should stay in the game even if they can’t afford to campaign any more. If they really are interested in serving the interests of the public, I don’t see how there is any other choice. After all, how can we get a true idea of how popular the ideas of a John Edwards, Fred Thompson or Rudy Giuliani are if they drop out and (in the case of Rudy) endorse somebody else? The primary process, if nothing else, serves as a barometer of where the party at large is ideologically, especially given that we’ve got two parties who are busy trying to cover a lot of bases.
I really, really dislike John Edwards, but he’s got a populist angle that neither Obama or Clinton have. Giuliani represents a different set of people in the Republican party than McCain.
When people feel like they have to vote for somebody other than their favored candidate because somebody is the “lesser of two evils” or “the candidate I like the most that is most likely to win” then everybody loses.