2008: Obama vs. Huckabee

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I'm thinking this:

350-188 Obama

[Mr. Smith]

Close, but McCain only won Arizona because of the native son effect and Huckabee's decidedly non-economic conservatism would cost him Montana

So pretty much 2008 with Montana and Arizona replacing North Carolina.

[H. Ross Peron]

[MATTROSE94]

[NewYorkExpress]

Obama wins all Kerry 2004 states plus Virginia, Georgia, Iowa, Arizona, New Mexico, New Mexico, New Hampshire and Missouri, Nebraska (CD2) and North Carolina.

Huckabee wins Indiana and Colorado up from Obama;

The closest states are Missouri, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia.

[Jerseyrules]

I feel like Huckabee is a much more personable candidate than McCain; he's far less stiff than McCain and would be able to connect with rural and white suburban voters in a way that McCain could not.  He's definitely shore up the south, and help with conservative turnout.  Not to mention that he'd probably pick a fairly moderate running mate to balance out his conservatism, preventing the Palin debacle.  A pretty solid selection for Vice President could be Jon Huntsman, Charlie Crist, or maybe Kay Bailey Hutchison.  Of those, I think that either Crist or Huntsman would be the strongest.

I think he'd have an easy time holding the more Republican states in the South and perhaps the West, holding North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, and perhaps Florida, while winning the South by a much wider margin.  Conservative turnout might decrease Obama's margin in Virginia, but I think minority turnout would put him over the top.  Huckabee's populist / folksy style would probably keep him over the top in Montana and maybe help him out a bit in Colorado (though I still think he'd lose it to Obama) and deliver him Arizona by a comfortable margin.

Obama: 304
Huckabee: 234

[Mr. Smith]

Same as '08 except the religious background alienates him from libertarian Montana voters and immigrants in Arizona, however he manages to build up a base so strong in Appalchia as to cancel out in-roads Obama makes in Virginia and North Carolina.

[IceSpear]

363-175

Flip AZ/MT to Obama, NC to Huckabee.

[IceSpear]

Same as '08 except the religious background alienates him from libertarian Montana voters and immigrants in Arizona, however he manages to build up a base so strong in Appalchia as to cancel out in-roads Obama makes in Virginia and North Carolina.

Obama's 2008 margin was so large in VA I don't think any candidate could've flipped it.

[Agonized-Statism]

Fmr. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) / Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Senator Barack Obama (D-IN) / Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) ✓

Dunno what these posters were thinking, Huckabee is clearly more like what the base wanted.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

Fmr. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) / Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Senator Barack Obama (D-IN) / Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) ✓

Dunno what these posters were thinking, Huckabee is clearly more like what the base wanted.

Exactly. 2008 in the GOP is considered to be the Revenge of the Paleocons in that the Neocons basically were kicked again and again by the base but McCain and Romney, who the base didn't like, and Giulani, who the base only barely tolerated, were forced on them while Huckabee and Paul were what the base wanted, with Huckabee representing the southern, religious conservative base of the party that felt betrayed by the neocons and Paul representing the energetic youth of the party who wanted actual real change for the country through Paul's ideas. In the end, both the ideas of Paul and Huckabee merged into one to lead to the creation of the Tea Party. In 2012, that base backed Cain, Paul, and Santorum the most over Gingrich and especially Romney. Then in 2016, the base picked Paul, Cruz, and Carson as their guys initially but eventually united behind Trump for the most part. The movement was there following the disaster of Bush and was awakened by Paul and Huckabee in 2008, but it took almost a decade to fully unite.