Divided They Fall

If there's any state where a semi-obscure social conservative ought to be able to make some noise, it's Iowa. And sure enough, if you add Sam Brownback's six percent to Mike Huckabee's seven percent in this Mason-Dixon poll, you have "Smike Brownbuckabee" nearly tying Rudy Giuliani for third place, and only four points behind Fred Thompson for second. As the various front-runners start to go after one another, you could imagine Brownbuckabee building some under-the-rader momentum and maybe even sneaking out a win in the Caucuses, which would create media interest and momentum, boost fundraising, and give him a chance to at least be an influential spoiler in the later primaries.

Unfortunately, "him" is a "them."

Comments

Hopefully the Ames straw poll in August will flush out some of the second-tiers...

Posted by AP | June 21, 2007 5:06 PM

Yes, with any luck this "McCain" nobody will be finished.

Posted by Daniel Larison | June 21, 2007 5:22 PM

So are you saying it's got to be 'us' instead of a 'them'?

Posted by gj | June 21, 2007 7:46 PM

It's over. The uberchristians were just annoying at first. Now they're repulsive. Nobody wants to play anymore.

Posted by Little Boots | June 21, 2007 9:24 PM

Maybe I'm just an unterchristian, but I still want to play. Uno, anyone?

Posted by Osvaldo Mandias | June 22, 2007 1:38 PM

Brownback is a Catholic, Huckabee a Baptist. Now I know that Protestant-Catholic differencees on the Right are nowhere near as important as they used to be, but I still wonder whether they might prevent one of the candidates from getting all the other's votes if that other candidate were to withdraw. There are still some fundamentalist Protestants for whom Rome is as anti-Christian as Salt Lake City...

Posted by David T | June 24, 2007 12:40 PM