Good news for Huckabee in Virginia
Talk about a surge!
If one final round of poll numbers is correct, Mike Huckabee has caught one in Virginia. The wave still might not be enough for him to derail John McCain in the state's primary today, but, if proved true by tonight's results, it would provide yet another lesson of the discontent within Republican ranks toward the party's presumptive presidential nominee.
SurveyUSA, in its poll of GOP-leaning Virginians taken last Thursday and Friday, gave McCain a healthy 32-percentage-point lead.
Working the phones again on Saturday and Sunday, SurveyUSA found Huckabee had closed that gap to 11 points. The big change was spurred by religiously oriented voters flocking to Huckabee -- the group he focused his attention on during the weekend.
With a trend like that, McCain and his allies can only hope that most Virginians had made up their minds by Monday.
You can read SurveyUSA's wrap-up on the picture in Virginia here.
-- Don Frederick
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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This surge only proves that John McCain is not the inevitable Republican nominee. Mike Huckabee is a solid conservative and what the Republican party needs for their candidate. John McCain is so liberal he is hardly a Republican. I support Mike Huckabee all the way.
Posted by: NY4Huckabee | February 12, 2008 at 11:13 AM
I thought Huckabee was only liked in the DEEEEEP South!
Hmmmmm???
Eric Rukin
Posted by: Eric Rukin | February 12, 2008 at 05:01 PM
If Huckabee gets enough delegates he could make it mathematically impossible for McCain to receive the 1191 needed. He could then potentially pick up the nearly 300 Romney delegates at the convention and still win. Also, there's always the possibility of McCain having a health issue or some unexpected campaign ender. Contrary to what the media is pushing for, it Ain't over yet folks!
Posted by: Mccainequalsdraft | February 13, 2008 at 06:17 AM