From the Wall Street Journal:
With every day that passes, (Mike) Huckabee fills that void for conservatives, argued South Carolina’s former Republican Gov. David Beasley, a recent Huckabee convert who helped work the crowds for his candidate at Iowa State University. “I really believe now that the conservative voters will begin to coalesce behind Mike Huckabee…and it’s going to be infectious in New Hampshire and South Carolina” — states that, along with Iowa, hold the first presidential-nominating contests next winter.
Mr. Huckabee, ebullient after an outcome that surprised even him, said he offered experience and “a different kind of Republican, not a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street.”
Also from the article:
Social conservatives, who have come to dominate the Republican party, could decide the candidate they have been looking for has been in the race the whole time, languishing at the back of the pack with little money to promote himself….
Mr. Romney, a wealthy former venture capitalist, had spent huge sums for the straw poll: His $200,000 for a consultant to organize the effort was alone more than the $150,000 that Mr. Huckabee estimates he spent altogether. Mr. Romney rented buses; Mr. Huckabee’s supporters had to find their own way. Where Mr. Romney hired bands to play Saturday at the huge hospitality space he rented, Mr. Huckabee entertained the older crowds himself with his band, Capitol Offense, jamming at one point to the 1970s hit “Free Bird.”
