John McCain Picks Up Key Evangelical Endorsement from Gary Bauer to Boost Campaign

Over the past week, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee stunned most of the nation by thoroughly trouncing front runner John McCain who is already presumed to be the party nominee. In loosing key states to Huckabee like Kansas and Louisiana, Huckabee proved why John McCain may have no other choice than to offer Huckabee the Vice Presidency on his presidential ticket. The key endorsement from evangelical leader Gary Bauer will certainly stop Huckabee's surge, at least temporarily anyway.

The endorsement from Bauer indicates that evangelical leaders realize that they need to mend a fractured GOP. Unless a miracle happens like Mike Huckabee believes can happen, Arizona Senator John McCain will be the Republican Party's nominee to face off against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Evangelical leaders are realizing that the McCain will need a unified party behind him which is the reason behind the Gary Bauer endorsement of John McCain.

An interesting question was posed to McCain of why Huckabee did better in caucus states to which McCain replied that he lacked money in those states. McCain also pointed to the fact that voters seemed to like Huckabee more than himself which could be a deciding factor of likability in the general election in November. McCain has 719 delegates while Huckabee has 234. It is highly unlikely that Huckabee can win the party's nominee barring unforeseen events. On a recent interview on MSNC with Tim Russert, Huckabee was asked if he would accept the Vice Presidential nominee to which Hucakbee stated that he has not been offered the position. However, Huckabee did say that the position was one that nobody wants yet nobody turns it down. A McCain-Huckabee ticket could unite voters in the South and would appeal to the base of the Republican Party who feels that McCain isn't conservative enough.

Gary Bauer was the former director of the Family research Council and founder of the Campaign for Working Families. In 2000, he ran against President George W. Bush for the party nominee and lost. Bauer is also a strong opponent of abortion, an issue that McCain agrees on as well as Huckabee.

Huckabee has continued to be a formidable opponent for McCain who just won't seem to go away, much to McCain's dismay. GOP leaders have pleaded with Huckabee to end his campaign for the better of the party, a concept that Huckabee strongly disagrees with. He believes that by staying in the race, people will talk about the challenges that the United States faces and will drum up further interest in the Republican Party.