Huckabee Wins WV, Team Romney Ignores

The presidential campaign for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney must be stinging a bit on the news that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee carried West Virginia today, but you wouldn't know it from the latest supporter email.

Just a few moments ago, the Romney campaign sent out an email message to supporters highlighting the differences between its candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain. While McCain, who has been downing the poli-vitamins sans water since his Straight Talk Express was nearly pronounced dead-on-arrival in Iowa last summer, is arguably the Republican frontrunner and deserving of Team Romney's scrutiny in these final hours, the email is notably silent when it comes to Huck. He's not mentioned.

The loss of all of West Virginia's 18 Republican delegates has to hit the Romney Campaign hard as it struggles to sustain viability - especially since the candidate himself addressed the convention. Those on the ground in West Virginia are reporting that McCain supporters, following a miserable first-round showing, threw their support to Huckabee in an effort to deny Romney the delegates.

Here in Iowa, a national loss by Romney, the Republican candidate who tossed millions of campaign dollars and untold hours of time into the state, to McCain, a candidate who largely ignored Iowa, doesn't bode well. The same holds true on the Democratic side of the coin if New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is named the Democratic nominee. The conventional wisdom is neither Clinton nor McCain would be strong supporters of Iowa's traditional role as first-in-the-nation.

The presidential campaign for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney must be stinging a bit on the news that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee carried West Virginia today, but you wouldn't know it from the latest supporter email.

Just a few moments ago, the Romney campaign sent out an email message to supporters highlighting the differences between its candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain. While McCain, who has been downing the poli-vitamins sans water since his Straight Talk Express was nearly pronounced dead-on-arrival in Iowa last summer, is arguably the Republican frontrunner and deserving of Team Romney's scrutiny in these final hours, the email is notably silent when it comes to Huck. He's not mentioned.

The loss of all of West Virginia's 18 Republican delegates has to hit the Romney Campaign hard as it struggles to sustain viability – especially since the candidate himself addressed the convention. Those on the ground in West Virginia are reporting that McCain supporters, following a miserable first-round showing, threw their support to Huckabee in an effort to deny Romney the delegates.

Here in Iowa, a national loss by Romney, the Republican candidate who tossed millions of campaign dollars and untold hours of time into the state, to McCain, a candidate who largely ignored Iowa, doesn't bode well. The same holds true on the Democratic side of the coin if New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is named the Democratic nominee. The conventional wisdom is neither Clinton nor McCain would be strong supporters of Iowa's traditional role as first-in-the-nation.