June 18, 2009 6:26 PM

Huckabee Drops Out Of GOP Race

By
CBSNews
(CBS)  Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination Tuesday night.

CBS News confirms that President Bush will endorse presumptive GOP nominee John McCain on Wednesday. McCain will travel to the White House to receive the endorsement and have lunch with the president.

"What a journey," Huckabee told supporters in Texas Tuesday night. "A journey of a lifetime."

McCain has been projected by CBS News to win Tuesday's contests in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. He entered the day with just under 1,000 delegates, and his wins gave him the 1,191 delegates he needed to clinch the nomination.

"I want to commend again, my friend, Governor Mike Huckabee, and his supporters, for their passionate commitment to their campaign that Governor Huckabee so ably represented," McCain told supporters in Dallas, Texas, Tuesday night, according to his prepared remarks.

Huckabee, who won the GOP's first contest in Iowa, had been continuing to campaign despite McCain emerging after Super Tuesday as the likely Republican nominee. He had come under increasing pressure from Republican leaders to drop out of the race so that McCain could shift his focus to the general election.

"We stayed in until the race was over," Huckabee said Tuesday night. He noted there were people who "didn't think we would make it to March '07, let alone March '08."

Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, won the GOP contests in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kansas in addition to Iowa. He had hoped for a surprise victory in Texas based on support from the state's social conservative voters, but fell short.

Huckabee told supporters Tuesday that McCain "has run an honorable campaign because he is an honorable man."

"For Huckabee, he leaves the race with increased stature and a possible future in Republican presidential politics," said CBSNews.com Senior Political Editor Vaughn Ververs. "His refusal to engage McCain in a negative manner over the past several weeks leaves him with a lot of goodwill among the party's rank-and-file."

Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved.
Add a Comment See all 27 Comments
by tfzalud March 7, 2008 5:23 PM EST
Huckabee obviously is not familiar with how the nominee is picked. His actions also show that he really didn''t want to be President in the first place.
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by fibonacci_ March 6, 2008 5:35 PM EST
I find Flying Spaghetti Monsterism very plausible.
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by candide777 March 5, 2008 7:48 PM EST
One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.
Posted by wfbdem at 04:10 PM : Mar 05, 2008

Totally! As our frighteningly intelligent president would say, "All three sides of the story should be told!" It''s high time the evolutionists and the creationists stopped trying to suppress the third and coincidentally most viable option: Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (a.k.a. Unintelligent Design).
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by fibonacci_ March 5, 2008 7:11 PM EST
We can all celebrate this. Religious nuts out! Christianity is a religion!
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by wfbdem March 5, 2008 7:10 PM EST
I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.

May the noodley appendage of the FSM touch us all.
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by bdrlnt4rl March 5, 2008 6:38 PM EST
and who has been praying???? and whose prayers does god listen to?????
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by bdrlnt4rl March 5, 2008 6:36 PM EST
mike:''''what shall we do now honey''''

janet:'''' i think i want to go back to my trailer house in the hills of arkansas and eat a squirrel''''

mike:''''sounds yummy, janet, i will go in the hills and shoot you one as soon as we get back to the trailer, maybe i will get you a hog too''''

janet:''''thank you mike, i have to take my shoes off, ya know i am not used to wearing shoes.

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by bdrlnt4rl March 5, 2008 5:33 PM EST
you''''ll be honored for a guy like Mike to have concern for the peoples needs.

Posted by noregion5

*****************

maybe you mean for the evangelicals needs. the other people will be on the front line of ww111 because he does not like people who go to other churches. he has made that very clear.

he will be the cause of ww111 because of his religious intolerance and sly work of words.
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by noregion5 March 5, 2008 4:10 PM EST
The same CBS commentors that "bucked" Huck for his baptist religion now use it to their advantage for an insult to a human being that holds an unstanding behavior for the common people. Definately, the coraporate monger attitude that are out for A number one, hats off to Mike Huckabee and people like this that can enjoy the ruins of humanity without a blink. I still like Mike and when/if WWIII ends and America still stands you''ll be honored for a guy like Mike to have concern for the peoples needs.
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by twocanpete March 5, 2008 3:17 PM EST
Today is great disapointment for the conservative movement. We now have three democrats to choose from and Juan McCain is the poorest candidate of those three. http://twocanpete.blogspot.com
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