Huckabee Gaining Steam, Viability

From the liberal American Prospect comes this incredible quote from Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention:

Huckabee had just won the straw poll at the Palmetto Family Council in South Carolina, and he was continuing to feel the evangelical wind at his back.

Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Taylors, SC, told me in an interview this week that Huckabee's candidacy is gaining steam, and that there "are a growing number of people who are convinced that he is a viable candidate." Huckabee, Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain have all met with Page, recognizing his influence as the leader of the country's largest Protestant denomination and the single biggest component of the conservative evangelical right.

Page, who said his comments reflected the views of conservative evangelicals generally and not just Southern Baptists, said that all the candidates, except Huckabee, "struggle with understanding where we [evangelicals] come from, but they all very much want that vote."

Page added that in contrast to 2000, when evangelicals were both "more comfortable and more confident" with Bush early in the process, the field remains unsettled.

On Monday Huckabee held a "Vertical Day" on his campaign website, a 24-hour event designed to attract more online support for his candidacy. One important guest-blogger for the candidate, who stopped short of an outright endorsement, was Newt Gingrich.

Friends, if people you know are writing off Huckabee because "he can't win," it's time to call them on it once and for all. He not only can win, but more and more people are realizing that our country needs him to.