In an interview with 1200 WOAI news during his swing through Texas, longshot Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee outlined a strategy which has him not winning the GOP nomination outright, but pushing the nomination to the September Republican National Convention, which he says will turn to him as the most conservative alternative.
The brokered convention plan is in stark contrast to Huckabees previous sunny predictions of a sweep to victory in the primaries and caucuses on the shoulders of adoring family values conservatives.
Huckabee said his brokered convention strategy is predicated on a victory in Texas, the countrys largest Republican state.
We think Texas is an important state, Huckabee told me. We know how important it is to win Texas.
Huckabee says with an upset win in Texas, and a win in the Ohio Republican primary the same day, Huckabee could deny front runner John McCain the nomination in the primaries.
If we win Texas, I think it changes the dynamics of this race. It could well go all the way to the convention. If the convention delegates pick the president, chances are they would pick the most conservative. I would be the one they would end up picking, if thats the criteria.
Huckabee also called for more debates with McCain.
"I think we ought to have debates. I think it's not Republcian and not American to shut off the debate and the process of the election."
Despite the endorsement of McCain of Governor Rick Perry and both of the states Republican senators, a victory by Huckabee in the Texas Republican primary is a longshot, but is not out of the question. Social conservatives of the type who have flocked to the Huckabee candidacy control the levers of the Texas GOP, and have the ability to turn out large numbers of evangelical voters in early voting, and on primary day.
Im like one of those tiny little basketball teams in the Final Four, and nobody thought they could get there, Huckabee said. I think its a credit to the commitment of those who have been supporting me.
He also compared the drive that keeps him going to the dream that the defenders of the Alamo fought for in 1836.
"You don't engage in battles only because you anticipate you're going to win them," he said. "You engage in your battles because you believe that they're right."
