By Rick Morris
It's a sad night for Mittens and his spinmeister-in-chief Hugh Hewitt, but their Establishment Hollow Man bit the dust in overwhelming fashion. Mike Huckabee beat the spread in terms of expectations by a wide, wide margin and notwithstanding Hewitt's hilarious rationalizing, the nomenklatura of the Republican Party and the hierarchy of the right-wing blogosphere had their attempts at mind control shoved right back into their bloated, plutocratic faces tonight in the Hawkeye State.
Again, Huck is not my first choice and maybe not even my second, but Romney cannot be allowed to steal this nomination in the smoke-filled back rooms of the GOP fixers and tonight's outcome makes his campaign's attempts to do so more unlikely. The "Al Davis Republicans" that Hewitt speaks of, those who want somebody who can "Just win, baby!" -- they've got to be
wondering about their boy the Plastic Panderer when he gets smoked by a country preacher from Arkansas with no money who made a ton of rookie mistakes down the stretch. The Android is not dead, however, and it will be up to John McCain to finish the job in New Hampshire by putting a wooden stake through his heart and sending him back to his gay-marriage haven in a pine box (figuratively -- I don't need a visit from the Secret Service!).
As for my candidate, Fred Thompson, at this writing it looks as though he has managed the third-place finish he needed. In a diffuse race that looks like it could be dominated at different points by different candidates, he can stay viable if he can replenish his coffers. In the event that Romney goes down for good, maybe enough influential sellout conservatives will take the chance to redeem themselves by getting behind the only Republican in this race worth any excitement.
Congratulations to Huck for proving me wrong and winning this race tonight. His ability to reach out to average working people is rare for a Republican, especially for one who is not liberal (and he is not). Other Republicans can learn from him.
On the Democratic side, congratulations to Barack Obama. I don't agree with him politically on almost any issue, but I appreciate the hope and optimism he portrays and the fact that he does not run as a racially divisive candidate as Jesse/Sharpton did. I do think he's a good guy, which I would rarely say about a national Democratic figure, and I would not vote for him, but his approach to politics is good for the country. I thought Hillary would finish just ahead of Edwards, and apparently I was wrong, so she's in big trouble. She needs to win New Hampshire to keep the snowball from running further downhill, although she will stay in this race very late regardless.
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