Though it wasn’t the main story line Tuesday, we did learn a few interesting things about the evangelical vote:
Huckabee doesn’t have it locked up. Amazingly, he got only 28% of the evangelical vote in New Hampshire. Are there regional differences in evangelical opinion these days? Was there something about Huckabee that they learned and didn’t like?
McCain gets a second chance at evangelicals. The man who was thought to be persona non-grata among evangelicals (he called their leaders “agents of intolerance”) actually did as well among evangelicals as Huckabee did, capturing 28% I suspect that while evangelicals may have their problems with him, they now view fighting radical islam as one of the most important “values” issues and McCain does well on that score.
Not all evangelicals hate Mormons. Mitt Romney actually did as well among evangelicals as Huckabee did! I don’t know how to explain this other than with the general point that the evangelical vote this year is much more fluid and unpredictable this year.