One of the biggest faith-and-politics mysteries has been why religious conservatives haven’t rallied around Huckabee. He was told they were waiting for him to get “traction” and he said, hey you guys ARE my traction. And it’s true: if they really rallied around him in a forceful unified way, he would become a tier 1 candidate. If it’s that they dont want to focus their energy on a long shot, why did they say they’d support a third party candidate — the ultimate long shot?
So why hasnt it happened? My colleague Dan Gilgoff (a.k.a. God-o-meter’s channeller) theorizes that if they do a third party, then people will view it as a symbolic effort and if he/she doesnt do well, no one will count it as a sign of religious conservative impotence. But if they rally around huckaby and lose, they’ll be seen as a spent force.
Seems like a good theory to me. What do the rest of you think?