Michele, welcome to Beliefnet! It’s great having you as part of Casting Stones; we’re big fan of your Reformed Chicks blog.
As for the notion that religious leaders won’t rally around Huckabee because he doesn’t have a chance, Huckabee had a great response. When a religious conservative told him that he wasn’t getting support because he doesn’t have “traction,” he said you are my traction. If religious conservatives wanted Huckabee to be a tier one candidate, he could be one over night.
And if pragamatism and electability is the key issue, why raise the prospect of launching a third party campaign for religious conservatives? One thing’s for sure: Huckabee has a much better chance than a third party candidate.
I know lots of Democrats who voted for Kerry in the primaries even though they didn’t much like him because they said he was most electable. Everyone’s a pundit! Instead, they should have thought: well, if I don’t much like him, perhaps others might feel the same way. It looks to me like the religious conservative voters are wiser, in that sense, than their sophisticated leaders.