The anti-McCainiacs are split between Romney and Huckabee, with neither challenger raising enough steam to stop McCain. Huckabee wins some impressive victories, but only in his home region and only in a three-way dynamic. Despite all the media excitement, the Happy Huck is having what Wall Street's dark humor calls a dead cat bounce. (You drop a dead cat off a ten story building and it will bounce down the street looking alive when it is in fact quite dead.) Huck will not be the nominee. (The biggest media myth in the race, by the way, is that the Huck's vote all comes out of Romney's. In fact, if Huck wasn't in the race, exit data indicates his vote would split between McCain and Romney, with a good chance that more than half would go to McCain.)
Mitt Romney wins a load of caucuses and his home states, but is unable to win big states and rack up big enough numbers to break through and create a two-man race with McCain, let alone stop him. Clearly the GOP primaries are not dictated by AM radio microphones.
Team McCain has a very good night and the Cinderella slippers clearly fit. But a lesson is learned about wasting time on juvenile maneuvers like their wasted trip to Massachusetts to poke Romney in the eye, when Alabama and Tennessee clearly could have used a little more McCain campaign attention.
I think everybody stays in, but next week's Potomac gauntlet will narrow the field and, barring a huge gaffe or upset, John McCain - love 'em or hate 'em - is highly likely to become the GOP nominee.
One footnote: What happened to the so-called mighty immigration issue?
