The problem: John McCain.

He is in good shape to win the Republican Primary. McCain's stance on stem cell research and gay-rights (along with his slandering of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell in 2000) have alienated the Socially conservative wing of the Republican party and his rejection of Bush's tax cuts along with his obvious ignorance on economic nuances have alienated the fiscal conservative wing. The only conservatives McCain credibly appeals to are the old ones (and the national defense conservatives). The conservative punditry (just like in 2000) are up in arms against him, brainstorming on how someone could possibly stop him.

Some solutions that have been brought up are: Mike Huckabee should drop out so he can stop sapping Mitt Romney of his conservative voters. Another solution proposed by Mitt Romney today on MSNBC would be don't vote for Huckabee, vote for him. This solution would seem logical if only for one thing: Mike Huckabee is leading and contending in more February 5th states than Mitt Romney.

Mike Huckabee is looking good to win in (with delegates are in parenthesis) GA(72), MO(58), TN(55), AL(48), CO(46), OK(41), AR(34), WV(30).

John McCain is looking good to win in IL(60), ME(21), AZ(53), NJ(52), MN(41), CT(30), AK(29), NY(101), CA (172)

And Mitt Romney is sure to win in....MA(43), UT(36).

(I could not find any recent polls for ND=26, MT=25, DE=18)

Another important fact to note is that in many of the states where John McCain is leading, Mike Huckabee is in very close second.

Now the Current delegate count is: McCain 97, Romney 59, Huckabee 40. And in the current circumstances if things played out they way proposed, the delegate count after Feb. 5 would be around:

McCain-653
Huckabee-513
Romney-138

(I gave McCain all of CA delegates because trying to figure out who will get what proportion is crazy but take note that the likelihood of all the delegates from a proportional state primary going to one person is minimal. Also I left out ND=26, MT=25, DE=18 because I really have no clue who they would swing too).

As you can see Huckabee is still very much in play and Mitt romney...not so much.

So I would like to propose a different solution than the one suggested by Mitt Romney and the conservative punidtry. Because Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee generally share the same base and because Mike is leading Romney in a majority of the Feb. 5 states, why doesn't Mitt Romney drop out and stop splitting the conservative vote between the two? Obviously Mike has a better chance of actually getting the nomination than Romney, this would be the most logical step.

And if Mitt Romney won't heed this wisdom, why don't the people who are extremely afraid/disgusted at the idea of a McCain nomination, vote for Mike Huckabee instead of Mitt Romney. He has a better chance of winning, it would only be logical.