@Joyce: The consensus among many of my friends is that Huckabee is aiming for the VP slot. He knows he won’t receive it if Romney wins, so his only hope is ensuring that McCain comes out ahead of Romney by splitting the conservative vote. While I can’t say I share your personal admiration for Huckabee (I feel he doesn’t fully support the separation of church and state), I do acknowledge that he is showing savvy political judgment. McCain’s moderate/independent/liberal leanings would be balanced by Huckabee’s more conservative social leanings, perhaps helping sway the Evangelical voters.

To your point of electing the best man for the job, I’m not 100% convinced that we’re really interested in that goal anymore. Part of me is inclined to believe that people want a candidate who lines up with their personal beliefs. The question of how they’d lead seems to be secondary to how they worship. The second part me say that people want some change, but not too much change. If you actually elected an effective leader, there might be too much change, an uncomfortable, if unspoken, thought for many voters.

@Tom: While there are many interesting aspects to Ron Paul’s campaign, I’m left wondering what would have happened if he’d picked two or three points and pounded them home. I fear he made it easy for traditional media to make light of his campaign by including his opinions on abolishing the IRS and returning to the gold standard as part of his campaign rhetoric. It’s not a question of the validity of his opinions but rather the readiness of his audience to be receptive to his ideas.

He raised a lot of money for a reason: people found something in Paul that spoke to them. But for the people that hadn’t heard of him, his inability to focus, I believe, made it difficult for potential new supporters to find a way in. Combine this situation with the racism allegations that I don’t believe he’s fully resolved, and I think Paul missed his opportunity to gain more mainstream support.

But no, what makes me think the media is biased?

John McCain leads in the polls in a pretty sizable majority of the Super Tuesday states. Under Republican Party rules, every state which votes on Tuesday is a “winner-takes-all” state, and even if a candidate squeaks by with a majority of, say, 0.04%, he still gets all the delegates from those states. Moreover, Huckabee is still considered a viable candidate in some states, especially many southern States which are voting on Tuesday, and it’s being posited that he’ll take votes mainly from Romney. (Ron Paul is also technically still in the race and, while not considered viable, he has a pretty strong “cult” following.)

On the other hand, the Democratic Party rules are the reverse of the GOP. Every state grants some delegates to the loser, often a considerable number of delegates, on a basis proportional to the size of the votes they collect. And the only remaining Democratic candidate apart from the Big Two is Gravel, who most people can’t even name.

The upshot is that the Republican nomination may literally be decided, for all intents and purposes, on Super Tuesday, while the Democratic race may remain very unclear for some time to come.