Iowa, the zit on the political landscape that starts the process, is nothing more than a test of grassroots organization. Huckabee won Iowa because of the RTL and FT folks. And that was the end of his campaign. Once he got some notoriety, he was never able to raise significant amounts of money nor was he able to put together an effective campaign.

The guy is pretty good in the debate format and can be a pretty good stump speaker, although I’d argue Gov. Palin is better on both counts. That won’t overcome the fact that he’s fundamentally a Huey Long Populist masquerading as a Republican. Unlike Gov. Palin, who can point to REAL accomplishments over just two years as Gov., Huckabee was Governor of AR for ten years and accomplished specifically zip. And he spent the rest of his campaign after Iowa spinning and lying about what did in AR.

The bloom is off the rose for Huckabee and he – thankfully – accomplished the job all by himself. He’s not only not-ready-for-prime-time, he’s been outed for who he really is. He’s done.

And FWIW, so are, at a minimum, Rudy and Fred. Though for entirely different reasons. People who run campaigns as uninspired and crappy as they ran shouldn’t get another shot. Romney is probably done, his campaign wasn’t much better than R&F.

Frankly it doesn’t matter anymore. Good he lost!!! Its better fighting 4 years instead of getting frustrated for 4 years.

John please RETIRE.

That said, he’ll go back to the Senate where he’s got a cadre of boot licking acolytes who worship the guy (see Graham). Obama will call on him (not directly of course, but through Harry Reid) to help out for the sake of the American People. John will perform his thing again.

He strikes me as a man that will do anything to advance himself.

This is precisely why we lost the election. The irony is that the Democrats, who are much more prone to this problem, were able to overcome their internal divisions and focus on the goal for just long enough to win. They are already going back to the internal sniping and backbiting.

I have to echo Rush here,”Conservative issues win elections every time they are tried.”

It may be true that the Big Shots didn’t specifically order the hit. But they are certainly complicit with their silence. My personal “Leper List” is quite lengthy.

This seems obvious to me that it was the work of the liberal Republicans (yes, NeoCons) that were working for McCain. After all, McCain attracted the most liberal of Republicans for his staff and you have to know they hated the idea of a Conservative lady for the VP position. This actually should be very obvious to anyone here at RedState especially…

This will even continue for the next year or so to ensure that she has to respectable place in the party. The thing is though – she is considered one of ours and one of the top prospects so they, liberal fake Republicans, can take a hike!

Their urge to tap down the Conservative base of the Republican Party after this loss is undeniable. I can see no other option other than these same losing Republican members attempting to squash Conservative up and coming possibilities.

Romney isn’t a loyal trooper. He’s kneecapped his opposition before. There are press reports that he was kneecapping Palin as he saw her a threat in 12 in the media. It was Romney surrogates that backstabbed and savaged her in the media and gave the left fodder. He could’ve stopped that any time…if he wanted to.

Please, don’t bother protesting Romney’s loyalty. It’s as convincing as his “conservative” record. He’s a typical self-serving Establishment Republican who passes himself off as running on the right so it can give him a chance to win…until he can find a way to win by looking “bipartisan” (ie Michigan).

Any “conservative” candidate not good enough to win this time around against deadwood like McCain isn’t good enough for 12. Period.

It’s sad she has to go back to Alaska.