Mike Huckabee: The Conservative Alternative

How else can you explain what The Huckster was able to pull off on "Super Tuesday":

After his disappointing showing in South Carolina, Mike Huckabee was supposed to be a spent force. The former Arkansas governor's triumph in the Iowa caucuses would be relegated to the history books and deemed no more significant than Christian evangelist Pat Robertson's besting George H.W. Bush in the Hawkeye State two decades before.

But Huckabee stormed back into the race yesterday with wins not just in his home state of Arkansas but also in Alabama, Georgia and West Virginia. He was running strong in Tennessee and Missouri, as well, complicating the race for the Republican nomination all over again.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who had expected to emerge from Super Tuesday with the nomination virtually locked up, was left facing still more questions about his ability to win in deep red Republican states. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was left wondering why he could not win the conservative votes McCain was losing.

Romney doesn't need to look past the fact that conservatives know a pretender when they see one. I like Mitt, but his past is catching up to him. Once a pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-universal health care governor of Massachusetts, Mitt has undergone an extreme makeover and just like Rudy Giuliani before him, conservative voters aren't buying it. Huckabee's remarkable showing also displays the difference between right-wing extremists and real conservatives: while real conservatives vote on principle as well as protecting the moral fabric of this country, right-wing extremists are just devote loyalists most interested in fighting their left-wing counterparts. That said, if Huckabee keeps this up he deserves the vice-president slot, a move that could help John McCain in the South and Midwest. Congrats to the little guy with no money, major endorsements or insipid radio jocks in his corner.