Super Tuesday reaction: The Repubs

Going into yesterday, the conventional wisdom seemed to say that Super Tuesday would most likely entail McCain winning almost all Republican contests (the question being by how much), with the remaining going to Mitt Romney, and potentially one or two to Mike Huckabee. The storyline for Wednesday was pre-written as "McCain solidifies his front-runner status; nearing enough delegates to clinch the nomination." Instead, lots of successful McCain stories, but always with a caveat, such was the Washington Post's McCain Wins Big States; Huckabee, Romney Live, or the New York Times' Arizona Senator Surges; Huckabee Strong in the South. Here are the results themselves (most states were winner take all on the Republican side):

Mike Huckabee: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia

John McCain: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma

Mitt Romney: Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Utah

What strikes me as interesting is that there are some trends -- McCain wins the big states, Huckabee wins the South -- it also just seems kind of random, particularly on Romney's side (exceptions being Mormon Utah and his "home state" of Mass.) But regardless, what this shows is a party truly divided. McCain's inability to win big last night, though albeit with a win at the end of the day, illustrates this. And then you have people like James Dobson of Focus on the [heterosexual, nuclear, preferably white] Family saying things like this:

I'm deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, who voted for embryonic stem cell research to kill nascent human beings, who opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, and who has little regard for freedom of speech, who organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.

I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are. He has at times sounded more like a member of the other party. McCain actually considered leaving the GOP in 2001, and approached John Kerry about being Kerry's running mate in 2004. McCain also said publicly that Hillary Clinton would make a good president. Given these and many other concerns, a spoonful of sugar does not make the medicine go down. I cannot, and I will not vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience.

Apparently he's not a fan of McCain. This is not over yet; I'm hoping that the Huckabee-McCain detente will end soon as Huck tries to exploit the religious rights' apparent aversion to McCain, and McCain fights back calling out Huckabee for the cave man perspective he holds when it comes to social issues and tax policy. We'll see.