At what point do the bids of Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee — two sides of the economic-social conservative coin – become less about the candidates themselves and more as proxies for the social conservative wing and the economic conservative wings of the party?

If Huckabee gets the nomination – probably the longest shot to gain the GOP nomination in a generation – it will be a shining success for social conservatives, who will have demonstrated that a charismatic, rhetorically gifted guy who is great on their issues can win, even if he arouses the ire of fiscal conservatives.

If Giuliani gets the nomination, we will see a thousand newsweekly articles about “The Death of the Christian Right.” (Okay, a thousand more than we’ve already seen.) The Giuliani camp would prefer that their man’s victory not be interpreted as a slap in the face of a large segment of the party, but the MSM is always eager to stir up a good fight among Republicans. The argument will be out there, for every election from here on out: “If the Christian Right couldn’t drive a candidate to the nomination, how can they drive a candidate to outright victory in the general election?”

I don’t think either man wants to be seen as The Candidate of Rebuke. But that seems to be the way the narrative is being shaped…