Huckabee not dropping out of race — yet

WASHINGTON — It would take a miracle for him to win the Republican presidential nomination, but former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee isn't going away, at least not yet.

He headed to Wisconsin Wednesday, hoping that his populist economic message will win votes from anxious blue-collar workers in Tuesday's primary; he plans to campaign intensely in Texas, looking for a strong turnout from religious conservatives in the March 4 contest there.

Yet even if he wins both, and other primaries through the spring, he's all but certain to fall far short of wresting the nomination away from Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain's campaign said Wednesday that Huckabee already has been mathematically eliminated — he needs more delegates than are still available.

However, an Associated Press count found that enough delegates remain in play to keep Huckabee alive politically — but barely. Even under that count, he needs to win 96 percent of the remaining delegates. To say that's unlikely is a large understatement.

So why does he keep running?

"I know people say that the math doesn't work out," Huckabee said this week. "Folks, I didn't major in math. I majored in miracles, and I still believe in those, too."

Or perhaps he's running to show he can win voters that McCain can't, increasing his value as a possible running mate.

Or maybe because every win or strong finish — like Tuesday's in Virginia — sets Huckabee up as the next guy in line. And that, conservative strategist Keith Appell said Wednesday, is a good place to be in a party that almost always nominates the next guy in line.

This time, though, it's all but over for Huckabee.

"The path to victory is a complicated one for me," Huckabee conceded Tuesday in Washington. "But the path to defeat is a real easy one. All I've got to do is quit."

Even if Huckabee can't win the nomination, he'd go to the convention with enough delegates and stature to command attention, if not respect.

One role he'd play is champion for the conservatives who've supported him. In Virginia, for example, Huckabee won a majority of self-described conservatives, evangelical Christians and voters who make less than $75,000 a year or who lack college educations.

One place he'd likely play that role would be in writing the party platform, fighting, for example, to maintain its support for a constitutional amendment banning abortion.