Chicago Daily Observer

It’s a current cliché to opine that Republicans aren’t happy with their field of presidential candidates, but the Iowa results reinforce the concept, regardless of what happens in New Hampshire. The Republican Party is perilously fractured.

Out went Mitt Romney, one of the important establishment guys—and in came Mike Huckabee, the most outsiderish of the lot. Even if Romney recovers in New Hampshire, a die has been cast that suggests even more problems for the Grand Old Party.

To wit: all the candidates were either badly wounded or exposed serious sores that will be rubbed raw in the general election to come.

Huckabee’s incredible gaffes and displays of ignorance will not garner him the independent or crossover Democratic votes he would need in what is already an unlikely year for Republicans. Yes, he was able to inspire evangelicals and just enough traditional Republicans in Iowa to make the numbers look ... Read More...

While in Paris in mid-November I spoke to Democrats Abroad-France, an officially recognized group of expat voters, about—what else? —the coming election. Naturally, the questions turned rapidly to the horserace.

Keep your eyes on Mike Huckabee as the GOP’s dark horse, I said, immediately drawing snickers and good-natured heckling from a dozen or so in an audience largely unfamiliar with his name.

“President Huckabee?” snorted one, as if the very sound of it was absurd.

Needless to say, the intervening weeks improved the name-recognition of the former governor of Arkansas (from a town called Hope, just like you-know-who).

By month’s end Huckabee surged ahead of Mitt Romney and was leading the Iowa polls (paralleling Obama’s scooting past Clinton).

Suddenly, everyone hears Huckabee. He is December’s flavor of the month, replete with major take-outs in the New Yorker, New ... Read More...