Mike Huckabee left the Republican Presidential race Tuesday night but he leaves with his head held high and a bright future ahead of him.
Click the play button above to hear Huckabee's goodbye speech.
Let's start with the obvious.
Huckabee is a masterful politician, a great speaker and motivator. His campaign aides consistently told me that the campaign was driven by the sheer force of his personality, drive, message and oratory. It's like in basketball when you have one great player. You ride him as far as he will take you and boy, did Huckabee take this campaign far.
So what happened? Why couldn't Huckabee pull it off?
Here are a few observations after being on the campaign trail with him numerous times. Let's start with two words: National Security. Look, he could never convince the GOP establishment, military generals, Evangelical leaders and voters in general that he was 'tough enough" for the job.
There was a lot of talk that Huckabee didn't get key Evangelical endorsements but what he really needed was a few endorsements from five star military generals. He needed a Colin Powell. He needed a Tommy Franks. It never happened. If he runs again, he'll need to come to the table with stronger national security credentials.
Another factor that didn't help was how Romney, Thompson, Limbaugh and Club for Growth painted him as a tax and spend liberal.
It hurt him and Huckabee was frustrated by it. But the biggest frustration may be how Evangelical leaders never got behind Huckabee. James Dobson did but not until it was way too late. The rest of them stood on the sidelines and left Huckabee high and dry. This hurt him. With early Evangelical support from these leaders, Huckabee could have really gained some serious momentum early in the process, built a larger operation, raised more money and could have won South Carolina. If he had done that, the race may have been different.
That thought leads to another. Huckabee may be a pro-life, pro-traditional marriage Evangelical but he represents even more than that. He sees his faith as a way to talk about global warming, Darfur, reducing poverty, healthcare etc. He calls himself, "conservative but not angry about it."
He does look to Government to play a more active role in the lives of Americans. It's not the traditional GOP blueprint and that bothered some, maybe too many.
Finally, let me just say this: Who would have ever thought that Mike Huckabee would have lasted this long?
Nobody gave him a chance but that's been the story of his life and he's proven people wrong every time. He's young enough to run for President again. He'll have four years (maybe eight) to fill in the holes and come back even stronger. Whether you liked him or not, whether you voted for him or not, Mike Huckabee is now on the national stage and not going away anytime soon.