There’s still plenty of uncertainty about the race for the White House at this point, especially on the Democratic side, but here’s relatively reliable prediction: John McCain won’t ask Mike Huckabee to drop his bid for the White House.
But that doesn’t mean his staff won’t. For the second week in a row, a senior McCain aide has drafted a memo arguing it’s “mathematically impossible” for Huckabee to win the Republican nomination. “He now needs 950 delegates to the secure the required 1,191,” writes Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, in a memo circulated late last night. “But in the remaining contests, there are only 774 delegates available. He would need to win 123 percent of remaining delegates.” In other words: Hint hint, Huck. You can’t win.
Did Huckabee get the memo? Not judging by his remarks in Little Rock last night, where he suggested he might take his fight to the conventions.
So far, the McCain campaign hasn’t taken up their case directly with Huckabee beyond their widely-circulated memos. A senior McCain aide tells Newsweek there have been no contacts between the senator’s campaign and Huckabee’s–though there have been plenty of surrogates, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, publicly suggesting its time for Huckabee to close up shop. For now, McCain seems almost to be campaigning past Huckabee and gearing up for the general election. McCain’s up on the Hill today, lobbying House Republicans for support, before hosting a fund-raiser later tonight. Still, just in case, he’ll hit the campaign trail on Thursday and Friday, traveling to Vermont, Rhode Island and Wisconsin–all states with primaries coming up.
