WV: Anybody But Romney

The AP just called West Virginia for Huckabee. It seems that after the first round of balloting, which put Romney first, Huck second, and Mccain third, Romney failed to win an outright majority. The McCain folks swung their support to Huckabee, stealing 18 delegates from Romney. As Marc Ambinder wrote last week:

Mitt Romney’s advisers now have their final blitz mapped out. Confront McCain squarely on his past record. Play up, subtly, the generational differences between the two candidates. Put the fear of God in activists. “We’ll fight for another week and hope the conservatives realize they have to come together or have McCain as their nominee.” The strategy eschews big states and concentrates on smaller states where the delegate selection processes favor conservatives. They include Colorado, a caucus state, West Virginia, Alaska (which is why Romney mentioned McCain’s support for ANWR drilling last night), and Oklahoma and Georgia, two states where delegates can be extracted from congressional districts.

So Romney’s strategy takes an early hit as West Virginia Republicans opt for anybody but Romney. Also, a lot of folks haven’t taken seriously the idea of Huck as VP. I’m still not sure they should, but if he continues to offer this kind of help to McCain, he’ll have a strong case. And they do appear to get on pretty well with each other, drawn together as they are by a shared dislike of Romney. If McCain can’t mend fences with conservatives between now and the convention, maybe he decides to try and shoot the moon?

WV: Anybody But Romney

Tag:

NEWS

POLICY

COMMENTARY

RESTORING AMERICA