Daniel, I agree with your analysis.
But I take exception to the following (unqualified) statement:
"Mike Huckabee is a natural pol, with great ability."
He is a natural pol, so long as you are talking about a body politic the size and nature of Arkansas.
But at the national level, he has little ability, much less great ability.
He has about the same appeal (and effective intelligence) as Pat Robertson.
His whole way of speaking, his retarded ideas, and his hypocritical religiosity have zero appeal outside of America's band of Appalachian Throwback states.
True, McCain, an unreligious man much disliked by the Religious Right, needs these votes.
But if he were to try to get them with this cretin, he would automatically lose votes and a great deal of confidence in other, more important places.
