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Four Takes on the GOP's Night

Scribes talk McCain's conservative problem, the Romney slight, and Huckabee as VP

By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 6, 2008 12:46 PM CST
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(Newser) – With the big day behind us, four writers look to where Super Tuesday results leave the GOP:

  • John McCain “had an impressive night,” says Jim Hood in National Review, but still lost in many states among Republicans—and had terrible conservatives stats. He’s no good for November unless he can “motivate disgruntled and distrustful Republican activists.”

  • Hood’s colleague Mark Steyn saw “an explicit anti-Romney vote in the South.” Mike Huckabee voters are the same people who mock the “pansy northern states” and they’ll never elect a Mormon. Mitt Romney's pitch that he’s the most acceptable to conservatives hit the skids in the Bible Belt.
  • The “biggest news” is Huck’s Southern dominance, says Andrew Sullivan: The “pastor cannot be denied,” and now that he and McCain are in front, it’s clear the GOP’s conservative leaders “are very scantily clad emperors.”
  • The New Republic’s Bradford Plumer notes that Karl Rove shot down a Mac-Huck ticket last night, calling the pairing “double trouble”—as Huckabee has his own vocal antis in the party. Plumer’s inclined to trust Rove, who “presumably has a sense for where the base's erogenous zones are.”

Republican presidential hopeful former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee greets supporters at his election watch party in Little Rock, Ark., Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
Republican presidential hopeful former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee greets supporters at his election watch party in Little Rock, Ark., Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)   (Associated Press)
With the glow from a television set cast on his face Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., talks to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on a telephone after the announcement of his strong majority showing in the California presidential primary at his election night command post in Phoenix, Tuesday night,...
With the glow from a television set cast on his face Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., talks to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on a telephone after the announcement of...   (Associated Press)
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., celebrates at his Super Tuesday primary election night party in Phoenix, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., celebrates at his Super Tuesday primary election night party in Phoenix, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)   (Associated Press)
Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney waves to his supporters during his Super Tuesday primary watch party in Boston, Tuesday Feb. 5, 2008.(AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye)
Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney waves to his supporters during his Super Tuesday primary watch party in Boston, Tuesday Feb. 5, 2008.(AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye)   (Associated Press)
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