Washington - It took until Senator John McCain had
mathematically clinched the Republican Party's nomination for former
Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to bow out of the race.
When the time finally came Tuesday night, Huckabee thanked his
supporters and congratulated his rival with the usual good humour
that had endeared him to his conservative supporters across the
country.
'We started this effort with very little recognition and virtually
no resources. We ended with slightly more recognition and very few
resources,' Huckabee quipped during his concession speech in Texas.
Long considered only a second-tier presidential candidate with
little national recognition, Huckabee burst leapt to prominence on
January 3 by winning Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses, the contest
that kicks off the long nomination battle.
Huckabee capitalized on discontent among the centre-right party's
social conservatives, who were unhappy with the top Republican
candidates. His light-hearted, populist style made him look at ease
on the campaign trail and helped him stand out in debates.
But Huckabee lacked the infrastructure to build on his Iowa
succes, and fell short in the weeks that followed. After McCain took
an insurmountable lead in the delegate count on February 5, when 21
states held Republican contests, Huckabee for weeks fended off
questions about why he remained in the race.
While chief rival Mitt Romney dropped out and endorsed McCain,
Huckabee, a Baptist preacher, insisted that Republican voters still
deserved a choice.
In an appearance last month on the popular comedy show Saturday
Night Live, Huckabee joked that 'the media loves to throw around the
term mathematical impossibility.'
'Fortunately, ... I'm not a math guy,' he said. 'I'm more of a
miracle guy.'
But Huckabee's continued candidacy highlighted McCain's own
struggle to unite a party base sceptical of some of his more moderate
stands on domestic policy.
Despite stalling McCain's victory speech, Huckabee has also been
suggested as a possible vice-presidential pick, and on Tuesday he
promised to help the Republican nominee unite the party.
'We'll be working on doing everything we can to help Senator
McCain and to help our party,' Huckabee said. 'We aren't going away
completely. We want to be a part of helping to keep the issues alive
that have kept us in this race.'
USA
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