Time magazine says: Conservatives are desperate for a 2008 contender they can love. That headline is not exactly accurate. What IS accurate is that conservatives surveying the current field of Giuliani, McCain and Romney, are desperate for a 2008 contender they can love and who can win. Time's Karen Tumulty writes...
Considering that social conservatives account for a third or more of Republican voters, they could change the dynamic of the race, if they were to rally behind a single candidate. But they may not have much time to orchestrate that move. Republicans have a tradition of anointing their candidates early, and the 2008 campaign calendar suggests that they may do it even faster this time. As many as 20 states will have held their primaries by mid-February 2008--a time when, in earlier years, the candidates and their campaign organizations would still be dusting the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire from their boots. The practical effect of accelerating the schedule is that none of the contenders will be able to put all their hopes on getting a bounce from one or two early victories. Any serious candidate will have to be raising tens of millions of dollars and running a full-fledged national campaign operation by the third or fourth quarter of this year.
As a result, many conservative activists are looking with new interest--and urgency--toward putting their muscle behind some of the lesser known candidates who are thinking about running. One who is getting good buzz as he makes the rounds of activists is retiring Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister regarded as one of the nation's most successful Governors. "At this point, if there is a candidate out there that has a chance to come out of the weeds as the dark horse, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was Governor Huckabee," says Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's policy arm. Huckabee says he senses that conservatives feel "a need to coalesce around a person whose record matches his rhetoric."
Other conservative names being tossed about: Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who has already formed an exploratory committee, California Congressman Duncan Hunter, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, South Dakota Sen. John Thune and several current and former governors including Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty, Oklahoma's Frank Keating and Colorado's Bill Owens.
Time reports that "at least one champion of the conservative movement seems to be taking his time, in part because he's betting that there will continue to be a void on the right." That would be former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
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