Huckabee says race 'far, far from over'

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Mike Huckabee lost the Republican primary in South Carolina, falling short in a state that was crucial to his presidential aspirations but promising the race was "far, far from over."

"Tonight is not a time to start asking what if; it is a time to start talking about what now," he told about 300 cheering supporters at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

Huckabee needed to win South Carolina to prove it was no fluke when he won the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. Instead, he came in second to John McCain, who validated his own victory Jan. 8 in the New Hampshire primary.

The loss was particularly acute because, as the first southern primary, South Carolina was supposed to be friendly territory for Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister.

He insisted he would compete in the coming Florida primary and in the states that follow.

"This is not an event — it is a process, and the process is far, far from over," he said.

But now it is McCain, not Huckabee, who heads into Florida's Jan. 29 primary with the wind at his back.

So, too, does former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who won the Michigan primary on Tuesday and won Nevada's barely contested caucus on Saturday.

Huckabee was counting on grass-roots support from born-again Christians to outflank McCain's superior funding and organization. Exit polls showed Huckabee did well among white born-again or evangelical Christians, winning 40 percent of their votes to McCain's 25 percent.

But among the rest, McCain had an overwhelming advantage — about four in 10, nearly triple Huckabee's support. McCain was virtually alone in vying for support from independents, who accounted for about a fifth of GOP votes, while Huckabee had to compete for support from the party's conservative base with fellow southerner Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and "Law and Order" actor.

Despite the rough-and-tumble history of South Carolina primaries — McCain lost an ugly primary to George W. Bush in 2000 — Huckabee soft-pedaled his criticism of McCain, refusing to utter McCain's name even while exploiting his weaknesses.

Huckabee called attention to McCain's support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, railed against Washington insiders such as McCain, who was first elected to Congress in 1982, and revived controversy over the Confederate flag and McCain's opposition to it.

He campaigned on a common-man theme of economic populism, often saying the government has its boot on the face of working-class Americans.

"We had a message that has connected and continues to connect with people all over this country who have feared that they have been forgotten and have become invisible to many political people," Huckabee said.

A snowy forecast in the more conservative upstate region may have hindered turnout for Huckabee.

Besides the weather, Huckabee may have been hurt by his decision to spend extra time campaigning in Michigan, where he came in third, instead of in South Carolina. Senior aides made a last-minute decision to return to Michigan last Sunday and Monday after seeing huge crowds there during a Michigan swing on Jan. 12 and 13.

His support from born-again or evangelical Christians was a double-edged sword for Huckabee; it propelled him to victory in Iowa, but it made many people think he appealed exclusively to religious conservatives.

Exit polls in New Hampshire and Michigan showed Huckabee had little support beyond evangelicals, and even among evangelicals, Romney beat Huckabee in Michigan and split the vote with Huckabee in New Hampshire.

Huckabee said he was proud they both ran a civil campaign.

"And even though I'd like the outcome to be just a little different, I had rather be where I am, and have done it with honor, than to have won with the dishonor of getting there by attacking somebody else," he told supporters Saturday night.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080120/ap_on_el_pr/huckabee [link]