Mike Huckabee seems to be doing everything right, if his goal is to be John McCain's selection as vice presidential nominee (http://phosnorkapages.blogspot.com/2008/02/huckabees-veep-gambit.html and http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2008/02/03/huck-tackles-romney-team-mccain). Huckabee's campaign through Super Tuesday did a masterful job of essentially taking Mitt Romney out of the race. Social conservatives largely split between the two, giving McCain wins in most areas of the country ... not to mention a huge leads in delegates won.
For the most part, Romney's withdrawal today is the final straw in the Republican campaign, and it is hard to imagine McCain not winning the nomination.
The idea of McCain selecting Huckabee works on a few fronts. Huckabee is certainly a candidate who would satisfy many conservatives. He could potentially help McCain across the deep South (http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/02/huckabee_as_veep.html).
And the two men seems to get along better than most primary candidates this year (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/17/huckabee_and_mccain_playing_it.html).
McCain certainly has other interesting choices. He's been pal-ling around with Jack Kemp (), and some say that he also needs a veep with a lot of economic know-how, as that is an area he lacks in (http://www.vicepresidents.com/search-mccain-s-economic-veep). I think Florida Gov. Charlie Crist would be a fascinating choice ... as does Newt Gingrich (http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2008/02/07/newt-likes-crist-or-huckabee-for-veep.html?s_cid=rss:newt-likes-crist-or-huckabee-for-veep.html). Others have mentioned Joe Lieberman ... so what is it lately with recycled vp candidates?! Maybe this has some connection to the ongoing writer's strike ...
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Paul -- I think Huckabee makes a good choice for getting the evangelicals alone, but I think his fiscal policies (which I mostly agree with, actually) alienate the same "fiscal conservative" base that already hates McCain so...
That aside, I don't know if the Republicans can lay claim to fiscal conservatism any longer anyways -- did you see Bush's final (thankfully) budget broke 3 trillion (and that's leaving out untold billions for the Iraq war?)
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