The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Tabin and Romney

Tabin and Romney

By Hunter Baker on 2.6.08 @ 3:28PM

I think John Tabin's piece on Huckabee makes for interesting reading, but I quibble with one of his points:

It's not that Romney would be beating McCain if Huckabee weren't in the race -- McCain has a majority of the delegates that have been apportioned so far, and there's some evidence that plenty of Huckabee supporters would prefer McCain over Romney. A non-trivial number of voters just won't vote for a Mormon, unfortunately.

My argument with this bit is that it assumes a Huckabee voter would support McCain over Romney only because Romney is a Mormon. There are lots of good reasons why one might prefer McCain to Romney.

For example:

1. If Romney had an ACU rating, his lifetime number would probably be lower than McCain's.
2. Romney is a one term former governor, inexperienced by McCain or Huckabee standards.
3. Electability. Romney would probably get his clock cleaned by Obama or Hillary.
4. Trustworthiness. Many voters still don't believe Romney is truly converted, but is simply a technocrat.

About the Author

Hunter Baker is associate dean of arts and sciences and associate professor of political science at Union University. He is the author of The End of Secularism and winner of the 2011 Michael Novak Award. His personal website is www.hunterbaker.wordpress.com.