Belling Predicts Huckabee Win In Wisconsin

Granted that Mark Belling knows a lot more about Wisconsin's GOP than I do, so I was interested to read this lede in his February 13th Freeman column:

"Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee will win Tuesday’s Wisconsin presidential primary and the results reveal a lot about what is going on in both political parties. "

Full text here.

If Belling is right, (not Right), then the base in the Republican Party is farther right than I thought. So I will have learned something about both the GOP and I will acknowledge Belling's ability to discern that party's true mood and makeup.

On the other hand, if McCain wins the primary next Tuesday, then we will have learned something about Wisconsin's GOP voters, and about Mark, too.

Belling is one of those conservative radio talk show hosts in an absolute meltdown over the impending 'sky-is-falling' McCain nomination.

Democrats will have an easier time accepting either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama's nomination failure, since you don't hear many Democrats crabbing this badly should the Democratic nominee not be their first choice.

Wrote Belling, of McCain:

"The GOP is like the Titanic right after it hit the iceberg. You have the bizarre spectacle of a political party choosing as its nominee a candidate that most members of the party don’t even like. John McCain has nailed down the nomination by managing to win 40 percent of the vote in a lot of states. The remaining 60 percent doesn’t like McCain at all but never rallied around a single alternative.

"This leaves Huckabee as the only non-McCain standing (Ron Paul doesn’t count). Republican voters, distraught over McCain’s certain nomination, will trudge to the polls to register their disgust the only way they know how - by voting for Huckabee. In fact, Huckabee may win eight of the next nine Republican contests. He can’t catch McCain - McCain’s delegate lead is too large - but he will be able to take advantage of being the only way for the conservative base of the Republican Party to vent. Republicans will end up with a candidate so distasteful to them that he will limp into the general election having been clobbered in elections all over the country.

"Many believe McCain’s win, and the fact that fellow moderate Huckabee is the only alternative, is a sign that the conservative movement is dying. A better explanation is that there wasn’t a credible candidate for the party’s right wing to rally around. Fred Thompson was sleepwalking. Mitt Romney is a Johnny-come-lately who is a member of an unusual religion. Rudy Giuliani only supported some of the agenda. The bottom line is that Democrats Tuesday will pick a candidate they love and Republicans will try to send a message to one they hate."