Mark (Steyn): Fred’s people decided not to play in New Hampshire because it seemed clear that he’d never pull it off. With McCain, Rudy and Romney working it hard and spending lot of money in NH, there just didn’t seem to be a lot of room for him. They debated over whether to focus just on South Carolina or split the effort between SC and Iowa. Ultimately, they decided to play in both. They’re not doing so well in either.
Fred is the second choice of many Huckabee supporters. His only hope, at this point, is a huge Huckabee flame-out. But polls show that Huck’s support in Iowa is also fairly stout (i.e., certain to vote for him). He might get — if he’s very lucky — a split decision in the first two states (Huckabee-Romney), followed by a Hucka-bust that lets him in the door in South Carolina. Then he’d be for real if he could win Florida.
But boy, the polls don’t look so good.