Mike Huckabee is still a favorite among the James Dobson crowd as Sarah Palin was a no show at their Value Voters Summit weekend wingnut jubilee.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the Values Voter Summit's 2012 presidential straw poll Saturday, grabbing nearly 29 percent of the vote in a crowded field.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence each won roughly 12 percent of the 597 votes cast.
Four of the top five candidates addressed religious conservatives at the three-day Values Voter conference in Washington this week — the kind of attendance seen as a significant gesture by activists here, especially in an off-election year. Palin did not make an appearance.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which hosted the conference, said Saturday that Huckabee had "potential," but stressed that the former governor's strong showing wouldn't translate into automatic support from the FRC's political action committee. "We want a fully-rounded conservative candidate," he said. "Right now, the door's wide open."
If Palin had showed up and winked at the crowd, her base would have responded in kind, but it's tough going to these things for the quitter. She'll be there in a few years and whip the religious conservative base up into a frenzy.
And Huckabee shows off his foreign policy chops by backing the insane John Bolton over the Pentagon and the White House. There you have it...
