Could Huckabee’s southern charm lure McCain?

Mike Huckabee’s southern appeal may not win him the Republican nomination, but it could get him on the ticket.

While success in southern states on ‘Super Tuesday’ helped Huckabee’s own presidential bid, it also may have improved his chances of becoming Sen. John McCain’s running mate.

For weeks, Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has been speculated as a potential vice presidential nominee to McCain, the presumptive Republican choice. That speculation could reach another level after Huckabee’s surprising win in Tennessee as well as in other southern states such as Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia on Tuesday.

“It signals I think the strong possibility of a McCain-Huckabee ticket,” said John Vile, a professor of political science at Middle Tennessee State University.

Vile said Huckabee is doing “so well” in the South, and typically, a party nominee has “at least one southerner on the ticket.”

Huckabee though is still competing for the Republican nomination. But McCain’s performance on Tuesday nationally cemented his stance as the Republican frontrunner and he resoundingly leads the total delegate count.

While Huckabee may be on McCain’s radar, Bruce Oppenheimer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, is cautious to speculate about possible vice-presidential nominees.

Oppenheimer said not too many people expected current Vice President Dick Cheney, Sen. Joe Lieberman or former Vice President Dan Quayle to be the running mates to their respective presidential candidates.

“Al Gore makes no sense as a balancer for Bill Clinton,” Oppenheimer said. “So we have to recognize that often the decision is not strategic and it rests in the hands of the personal preference of the candidate.”

Scooter Clippard, a McCain supporter and member of his national finance committee, was in Arizona on ‘Super Tuesday’ to watch the returns come in with other top backers.

Clippard said that “nobody,” McCain or anyone on his campaign team, said anything about a running mate.

“John McCain is not even thinking about that right now,” he said.

McCain and Huckabee have some political similarities that could cause heartburn for the prospective ticket. The pair have each come under attack from some conservatives for opposing tax cuts or raising taxes as well as not being strong enough on illegal immigration.

Vile said that while voters seem to like McCain and Huckabee’s authenticity, the outspoken base of the Republican Party could train their sights on the potential ticket.

“The main problem I see with a McCain-Huckabee ticket is the talk radio people who do not think McCain is an authentic conservative also do not think that Huckabee is,” Vile said.

Another possible McCain running mate is former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who was an ally of McCain’s in the Senate, though Oppenheimer said McCain, 71, might be too close in age to Thompson, 65.

“Why would he run with Fred Thompson?” Oppenheimer asked. “That’s all you need is someone who’s 65 that reminds people he’s almost as old as you are.”

Huckabee gained the trust among evangelicals and social conservatives more than McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to win Tennessee’s primary, Oppenheimer said.

In his Tennessee win, Huckabee gained 25 delegates while McCain earned 19 and Romney eight, according to the Tennessee Republican Party.

Nationally, McCain leads the delegate count with 680 compared to Romney’s 270 and Huckabee’s 176, according to CNN. It takes 1,191 to win the GOP nomination.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) win versus Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in Tennessee, 54 percent to 41 percent, earned her 35 delegates compared to Obama’s 22, according to CNN’s projections.

Nationally, Clinton leads Obama in the delegate count, 818 to 730.

Delegate counting aside, Tennessee voters came out in record numbers for Tuesday’s presidential primary, shattering the previous record.

State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson said 1,190,001 voters cast ballots in early voting and Tuesday’s election.

“It was a record turnout for a presidential preference primary,” Thompson said.

The previous record for a primary in Tennessee was 830,000 in 1988 when favorite son Al Gore was on the ballot.

Voting precincts were flooded for the election as both Democrats and Republicans had contested primary elections in Tennessee, which drove up turnout.

Of the 1.19 million Tennesseans voting, 631,000 voted in the Democratic primary and 558,000 in the Republican primary.

State Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser said Democrats turning out in greater numbers than Republicans showed that the Democrats are “right on the issues.”