If Huckabee Finishes 4th In Florida Is He For All Intents & Purposes Finished?

[Lincoln Republican]

If Mike Huckabee finishes fourth in the Republican Florida primary behind Romney, McCain, and Giuliani, is Huckabee then for all intents and purposes finished?

Please discuss.

[exopolitician]

Probably, even though he'd carry on through Feb 5th and pick up a couple more southern states. Thats about it though. I think he knows hes finished so hes trying to suck up to McCain for a possible VP slot.

[Padfoot]

Yeah, Huckabee got a strong start out of the gate but he hasn't done very well since then.  He really should have placed higher in Nevada and Thompson killed him in SC.  If he places second in Florida he might still have an outside shot but I just don't see that happening at this point.  The remainder of this race is going to predominantly be between McCain and Romney if you ask me.

[Eraserhead]

I think so... mostly beacuse he has run out of money apparently.

[Erc]

Huckabee has the chance to play the role that Edwards wishes he could play in the Democratic primary.

He can win an awful lot of states in the South & in the Plains, enough so that he may be a force still come the Convention should Romney & McCain split the big prizes amongst themselves.

Can he win the nomination outright?  That is now entirely out of his grasp.  But he can make himself important (which is far more than Edwards can say for himself).

The big goal on the horizon for Huckabee has to be Texas (on March 4th's mini-Tuesday).  If he can win there (or, since it isn't Winner-Take-All, win a very sizeable chunk of delegates there), he can be a force to be reckoned with.  That would require the McCain-Romney fight to be still in full swing, though...which is rather unlikely (February after Super Tuesday is pretty McCain-friendly, so Romney would have had to have done quite well on Feb. 5 [but not well enough to knock McCain out] for the race to be still in progress).

[MODU]

In Florida, probably not.  However, if McCain gains too much headway and he starts taking Southern states away from Huckabee, then he is definitely done.

[TheGlobalizer]

I think he's already finished, FWIW.

[agcatter]

Yeah, he's already done, but it becomes clear after Florida.

[Joe Biden 2020]

Yeah, he's already done, but it becomes clear after Florida.

[Nym90]

In Florida, probably not.  However, if McCain gains too much headway and he starts taking Southern states away from Huckabee, then he is definitely done.

I agree, and given that McCain has already started taking Southern states away from Huckabee as of last Saturday, yes, Huckabee is definitely done.

Huckabee has to win FL to have any prayer and of course he won't.

[JSojourner]

I would like to say 'Good riddance', but something tells me he'll be back -- either as a running mate or in the next generation of Talibagelical televangelists.

[Gustaf]

Yeah. I'd even say that Huckabee is finished, unless he wins Florida and that, since he won't win Florida he is finished. He's still gonna win a couple of Southern primaries but I see him dropping out after Super Tuesday.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Huck is finished as a contender for the nomination, but he never had a real chance anyway: his appeal is too regionally limited and his core supporters are people who have no money. 

However, I expect he'll remain in the race as long as he can. He'll win some southern states like MS and AL at least, plus if he doesn't win TX, he'll at least get delegates. Personally I think he will win here because the TX-GOP rank-and-file are exactly the constituency that Huckabee appeals to.

He could be a good VP for McCain, which might set him up to run in 2012 or 2016, but the white house is probably permanently out of reach for him.