A recent article in the Los Angeles Times entitled "Long Odds Don't Faze Huckabee" underscores Governor Mike Huckabee's perseverance in the race as a Republican presidential candidate.  Here are some excerpts from the article:

 

He told half a dozen audiences over the last three days in Wisconsin that he can still win or, at the very least, give voice to conservative voters not yet sold on the presumptive Republican Party nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

And Huckabee, 53, spoke in an interview about another motivation -- keeping faith with his can-do life story, one that has included a fair number of battles with doubters and naysayers.

Huckabee said he was determined to continue on, regardless of the results of the Wisconsin primary. His staff is already laying plans for appearances this week in Texas, which holds its primary March 4. And Huckabee pledged to continue hopping from state to state "and fighting hard until someone gets to 1,191" -- the number of delegates needed to win the Republican nomination.

Mike Huckabee gives a Leadership Speech in the Cayman Islands encouraging young people to dare to dream!

Governor Huckabee appeared on the Hannity and Colmes show on Fox News Thursday February 14th.  Below is the transcript from the interview:

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Welcome to HANNITY AND COLMES. We're glad you are with us. I'm Sean Hannity. Right to our top story tonight; Governor Mitt Romney endorsed Senator John McCain today, calling the senator a hero. Former Governor Mike Huckabee is now the only man standing between Senator McCain and the Republican nomination. And Governor Huckabee joins us right now.

Governor, always good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, Sean. Great to be back.

HANNITY: You did have an announcement, news released today, talking about Romney's endorsement. He said, this goes to show there is a lot of me too, going on in the party. And I just happen to be the leader of the not-me crowd.

HUCKABEE: Sean, I have always been the guy that looked for the shortest line. You know, if you are going to the bank or you're going to the grocery store, look for the short line. And, you know, there is a short line that I have decided to follow. But it's a line that is based on my deeply held convictions that we are a pro-life party, that we stand for the Human Life Amendment, that we don't support human embryonic stem cell research, that we really do believe that lower taxes are better than higher taxes.

We need a strong national defense. I think I am speaking for a lot of small business owners, who know that the only way we can get small business where they can compete is implementing something like the fair tax. I'm speaking for those folks. They haven't asked me to quit yet.

HANNITY: First of all, governor, I agree with you on the fair tax. Neal Bohrtz (ph) has just written a great follow-up book on that. Let me specifically ask you this, because even as of now, when Governor Romney got out of race, he still has more delegates to you, freeing them up to Senator McCain in this race. It gets down to the question of can you mathematically win?

You are at 242. Governor Romney was close to 300. There you have Senator McCain close to that magic number. What is it, 1191? Mathematically, you would have to win about 90 percent of the delegates that are left. Do you think you could do that?

HUCKABEE: Well, I'm not sure. But I know one thing, if I quit I know I can't. But the other thing is that maybe none of us get to 1191 and it goes to the convention. That's always one path. It's a path that used to be the way that a person got the nomination until we started trying to cook it in advance. But there are a lot of people in states like Texas and where I am right now in Wisconsin. I'm in Green Bay -- and in Ohio and Pennsylvania, they haven't even voted yet.

Why should we tell them, don't even bother going to vote. We are not interested in what you say. I think these folks have a right to have a voice and a choice. That's why I feel like it's important to stay in the election.

HANNITY: Governor, I'm not going to tell what you to do. I think you have got to do what's in your best interest. You have supporters that you have to answer to. Does there come a point where it becomes mathematically impossible and that raises the question, what then is your goal? Is your goal to take this all the way to the convention? Are you in to the end or in to the day that he gets 1191? If you don't win Texas and Ohio and Wisconsin, some of these other states, will you get out, or are you in until he gets 1191?

HUCKABEE: I have said that if he gets 1191, then he is the designee - - the nominee.

HANNITY: Will you pledge not to get out before then?

HUCKABEE: Yes, I have already done that. I have done it about 100,000 times. I get asked this question every day repeatedly. So I want to make sure that people understand that's when the game ends, is when somebody gets 1191. That's when they have enough delegates to declare themselves the nominee. Until that happens, we still have people out in this country that haven't voted and I think that they have a right to be heard from. If they choose to go another way, then so be it; I'll accept that. But I'm not a quitter and I'm not going to quit on the people who got me here.

COLMES: Governor, it's Alan Colmes. I urge you to stay in. I'm glad you are doing it?

HUCKABEE: Thank you.

COLMES: Good to see you once again, governor. You said today upon the sanctioning of the campaign by Mitt Romney of John McCain -- you said, if either he, you that is, or McCain stand on the stage and congratulate the other for winning the nomination, you won't have to take acting lessons to convince people that you like each other. Are you saying Romney is a phony?

HUCKABEE: No. I'm just saying that this is a very new script for Mitt Romney to get on the stage and talk about what a wonderful guy John McCain is. I have been saying nice things about John McCain from the very beginning of our early debates. They are sincere. I like John McCain. I respect him. I do think I would be a better president. I think I'm prepared to be the chief executive, a role that I have played, something no other person running for president has done.

I think that when you are sitting at the Oval Office desk, you need to be able to make the tough decisions, having had the experience of serving in that capacity, and I'm ready to do that.

COLMES: Is Mitt Romney insincere in today's endorsement?

HUCKABEE: I can't judge what's in his heart. I can barely judge what's in mine, much less somebody else's. I'm not going there. I just know what he said today is very different than what he has said in the past about John McCain. Look, I'm glad he is making a decision about supporting somebody. I wish it could have been me, but I didn't expect it. There is no one in the establishment of the Republican party who is jumping all over themselves, breaking legs to run up on the stage with me right now.

But everywhere I'm going in Wisconsin today, we are packing crowds of people in these rallies, still enthusiastic. And they are wanting somebody to be a spokesman for them. I look out there and I don't see the big names, the ones that turn headlines, but I see the people that make America a great country, the homemakers and the truck drivers, and the ordinary folks. That's who the base of our party is.

COLMES: Is there either direct conversations between you and John McCain or back channel talks between the camps in an effort to get to you leave the campaign?

HUCKABEE: No. I have not had any conversations with Senator McCain since Tuesday night, when I called to congratulate him on winning Virginia. I don't think anyone in my campaign is having conversations with people in the McCain camp. John McCain has not asked me to leave. Some of his supporters have. You know, I have no intention of acting according to the supporters of my opponent. That doesn't make any sense.

When my supporters start telling me to quit, I have got to listen to that. But as long as the cheerleaders for my team are still waving their pom-poms, it's hardly time to quit the game and leave the field.

COLMES: The "L.A. Times" has a piece out today saying that you are staying in this game to be regarded as a national leader of evangelicals or maybe a future standard bearer; would that be an accurate assessment of what your intentions are?

HUCKABEE: No, I think the accurate assessment is that I'm still running for president. I have been at this now over 13 months. I have put my heart and soul into it. I have made incredible sacrifices to do this and more importantly, a whole lot of people across America have made major sacrifices for me be here. I owe it to them, to those folks like the truck driver in Michigan named Randy Bishop and the janitor in Birmingham, Alabama named Josh who have given me 20 and 30 dollars and said, hang in there. Don't quit. That's who I look to.

COLMES: Would the vice president be something you would accept?

HUCKABEE: I'm not looking at that. I'm looking to be president. If not, I will support the nominee. I doubt I will be asked to been on ticket. I have stayed longer than some folks want me to.

COLMES: All right, governor. Thank you for coming back on HANNITY AND COLMES. I appreciate it very much.

HUCKABEE: Thank you.

COLMES: Coming up, Ann Coulter told us right here on HANNITY AND COLMES she will support Hillary Clinton if John McCain gets the GOP nod. Well, if things keep going south for the New York senator, will Ann get behind Obama? We're going to ask her coming up next.

Mike Huckabee campaigned across the state of Virginia on Monday the day before the primary.  In a new Virginia poll Huckabee improved 21 points compared to a similar poll just two days ago.  Virginia is one of the last winner-take-all states in the Republican primary.

Below are some photos and a video slide show taken on the campaign trail in Roanoke Virginia on Monday - taken by Dan Davidson of StuckonHuck.com.

This is a great video that highlights the history of the Huckabee surge in Iowa through his Super Tuesday victories in the South.

Governor Huckabee continued to surprise pollsters and pundits this last Saturday with a hug 3-1 victory in Kansas and another southern state victory in Lousiana.  Huckabee has recently said that he didn't major in math, but instead "majored in miracles." 

In a new Time Magazine article, the continued story behind the Miracle Man is highlighted.

The tornadoes touched down last week in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and the yard sign was stuck in the lawn of one of his supporters. "A Mike Huckabee yard sign," he told the crowd Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., where his rival Mitt Romney had quit his campaign only two days earlier. The wind damaged a nearby home, but the sign didn't budge, Huckabee told the crowd. "Standing pristine without a hint of damage, even leaning, was that yard sign," he said. "Folks, I want you to know across America, everywhere there is a vote still to be cast, I'm still standing."

In the video below, there is a great explanation by HucksArmy.com regarding the actual math for Mike Huckabee to have an opportunity to win the GOP nomination.

Karl Rove recently stated that Huckabee would need 83% of the remaining delegates - that is true for Huckabee to get the required 1191 to seal the nomination before the convention. However, Huckabee only needs to win 59% of the remaining delegates to block John McCain from clinching before the convention. In this scenario, after the first round of voting, most of the delegates would be released and could vote for any candidate after that.

The last time the Republicans had a brokered convention was in 1976 when Ronald Reagan stayed in the race against Gerald Ford.  Ford ended up with the nomination and lost the general election.  Reagan came back in 1980 and the rest is history.

The political pundits are pretty much assuming that the Democrats will go to a brokered convention because of the virtual tie between Clinton and Obama.  A similar scenario could definitely play out for the Republicans as well, especially since McCain is having great difficulty appealing to the Republican conservative base.

by Dan Davidson, StuckonHuck.com

Mike Huckabee is starting to get the reputation of "Miracle Man."   The follow Time magazine article highlights Governor Huckabee's recent success and his determination to continue in the Republican race for president.

Mike Huckabee loves it when the odds look bad. They play right into the core theme of his candidacy. He is, after all, the other man from Hope, Ark., the first male in his family to graduate high school, the poor kid who grew up just a "generation away from dirt floors and outdoor toilets." And look at him now. He's 52-years-old, a former governor, 100 pounds off his top weight, and out there mounting a serious run for President of the United States.

So what is candidate Huckabee to do, when the odds go from bad to worse to damn near impossible? As the last week has made clear, he does not flinch or throw up his hands in exasperation. He seems to get even more excited, relishing his role as a modern day David staring down a growing Goliath. Then he talks about tornados, a yard sign and miracles.

The tornados touched down last week in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and the yard sign was stuck in the lawn of one of his supporters. "A Mike Huckabee yard sign," he told the crowd Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, where his rival Mitt Romney had quit his campaign only two days earlier. The wind damaged a nearby home, but the sign didn't budge, Huckabee told the crowd. "Standing pristine without a hint of damage, even leaning, was that yard sign," he said. "Folks I want you to know across America, everywhere there is a vote still to be cast, I'm still standing."

Of course, the crowd ate it up, with whoops and hollers and cheers. Huckabee's crowds always do. By Saturday night, it was evident that his supporters all across the country were still standing too. Huckabee had declared victory in two more states — Kansas, where he beat the presumptive nominee, John McCain, by a convincing two to one margin in a caucus, and Louisiana, where he edged out McCain with more votes in a primary. In a third contest, a caucus in Washington state, he nearly fought McCain to a draw, losing by about 223 delegate votes, or 1.6%, with 93% of the precincts reporting; on Sunday, however, his campaign, citing unspecified "irregularities", said it was not ready to concede the state and would explore legal options of challenging the result.

None of this changes the bitter math that Huckabee faces as he struggles to force a convention floor fight with McCain. As it stands in the latest CNN delegate estimate, McCain leads Huckabee by a margin of 723 to 217, with only about 1,000 delegates left to be awarded. Under the party rules, 1,191 delegates are needed to win the nomination, which means Huckabee would have to win most of the remaining contests. It will, in Huckabee's own words, take a miracle. "I know people say that the math doesn't work out," the Baptist pastor politician said over the weekend. "Folks, I didn't major in math. I majored in miracles, and I still believe in those too."

Evidently, he is not alone. His rally Saturday afternoon in College Park, Maryland, drew more than 1,000 people, overflowing a large room. As elsewhere, many in the crowd were evangelical Christians, who were drawn to Huckabee for his values. Some were true believers. Some were protest voters, who were not yet ready to get behind a McCain coronation. "McCain still needs to know that there are a lot of us who still aren't happy with a lot of his stated positions," said Doug Champ, a Republican union automotive worker, who lives in White Marsh, Maryland. He also added, "I think everybody knows, even most of the people in this room know, that McCain will be the nominee."

As the polls now stand, Huckabee is a dramatic underdog heading into the February 12 primaries in Virginia and Maryland, with McCain outpolling him by a margin of two to one. But the Huckabee campaign says it has its eye fixed firmly on the March 4 primary in Texas, where Huckabee could benefit from his southern appeal, and lingering conservative skepticism on McCain's positions on campaign finance reform and immigration. Whatever happens, Huckabee's strategists maintain without fail that the candidate will not be swayed by pressure from fellow Republicans to bow out before one candidate reaches 1,191 delegates. On Friday, Huckabee received a call from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, asking him to leave the race, according to someone familiar with the call. Huckabee told his fellow governor no. "We don't care. We're not about the party. We never have been," said Ed Rollins, Huckabee's national chairman, backstage at the Maryland rally. "To a certain extent this is about the people. They get their choice."

In an appearance on NBC's Meet The Press Sunday, Huckabee rejected as "nonsense" the notion that his continued battle against McCain could weaken the Republican party or drain resources from the general election effort. "If our party can't have a thoughtful discussion and some meaningful debate and dialogue about the issues important to us as a party, then we are really not prepared to lead," he said. He has also been quick to reject any notion that could perhaps be endangering his own, long-term political viability at the forefront of the conservative movement, drawing explicit comparisons between his candidacy and Ronald Reagan's in 1976 against the incumbent Gerald Ford. "[The establishment] had all begged him to get out of the race in '76 and not take it to the convention, but he had convictions, and he stood by those convictions," Huckabee told reporters this past weekend. "And now when you talk to Republicans, the Reagan name is the gold standard," he said.

All of which means that the "people", as Rollins describes them, get a few more weeks to hear from a enthusiastic candidate who seems to always see victory, even in the face of defeat. At a press conference Saturday morning, one reporter blurted out what has become for Huckabee a comfortable truth. "Governor, basically you have nothing to lose by staying in," she called from the back of the scrum. Huckabee paused. "Ah," he said, before smiling. "No. I don't guess I do."

I personally got nothing against the folks on Wall Street but I've made it clear, I'm really not a Wall Street Republican, I'm a Wal-Mart Republican. I understand what it's like to live in the real world out here. I didn't grow up with a trust fund. About the closest thing we had was just trust the Lord and keep working hard. - Mike Huckabee

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speaks with CNN's Wolf Blitzer about why he's still in the race.

BLITZER: Welcome back to the CNN Election Center.

I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.

Let's go live right now to the winner of the Kansas Republican caucus. The former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, is joining us now.

Governor, thanks very much for coming in.

First of all, congratulations on your very impressive win today in Kansas.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, thank you, Wolf.

There's a big smile on my face for a reason. We are pretty proud and grateful for the people of Kansas. We had a big day today. I don't think anybody was predicting us to win, and certainly not for the margin. And we were stunned by the margin ourselves.

BLITZER: Sixty percent for Mike Huckabee, 24 percent for John McCain.

Why do you think you crushed him in this reddest of red states?

HUCKABEE: You know, we were both there, we both had a shot at it. He had both United States senators out there endorsing him and speaking for him yesterday. It looked like it would be a pretty tough environment for us.

But I'll tell you what's happening. People don't want to be told who their president is going to be. And in the Republican Party, people want to make a choice. They don't want somebody else making that decision for them.

And they're tired of hearing somebody say, oh, well he's the presumptive nominee, why doesn't everybody just clear the field? And what we're seeing is there's an energy in our campaign, frankly, Wolf, that we haven't seen in months.

We've raised more money online in a day than we normally would raise in a month. We have seen extraordinary traffic to mikehuckabee.com, the likes of which we just aren't used to. We've also had an enormous amount of volunteers show up at things.

We were in Maryland today at a rally. We had three times the number of people that we thought we could possibly get at noon at the University of Maryland.

So, there's something going on out there, and it's called an election.

BLITZER: All right. Will this win in Kansas change your strategy at all in the coming days and weeks?

HUCKABEE: Well, not really. I mean, our strategy has been, let's go head to head wherever we can, because we've always felt that once the field narrowed and people had a clear choice, that we would be in a real position to start winning greater numbers of delegates.

When the votes of many of the conservatives were split all over the place, it obviously made it a little bit more difficult. But when the race is focussed and you only have a couple of candidates and people are starting to really look at where we stand and differences -- you know, not maybe hostile differences, but differences -- I think that what you're going to continue to see is that this is a real race despite what people may have thought about it middle of last week.

BLITZER: Does it bother you that in Kansas, at least, you humiliated John McCain and might embarrass him in other states down the road? Is that a problem going into this contest against the Democrats, that the front-runner, the Republican front-runner, could be embarrassed by you?

HUCKABEE: Well, no. I mean, I could argue that he embarrassed me in Florida, or that he embarrassed me in California. I mean, that's what an election is all about. It gives people a choice and an option. Elections are about contests.

You know, I had a reporter ask me today, should I just step aside for the good of the party? I said, "I'll tell you what's good for the party. It's competition."

We are always the party that said that competition is the key to excellence. And that's true in the private business market. If you have competition, then you create excellence. If you have the lack of competition, you end up with mediocrity.

The idea that we're going to be a better party without any type of election process is utter nonsense and about the most non-Republican idea I've ever heard.

BLITZER: What is the biggest issue that separates you from John McCain?

HUCKABEE: I think the key issues are that I support the human life amendment, that I don't support human embryonic stem-cell research. That I didn't agree with McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance Act, and immigration. We have differences of opinion on how we ought to handle that.

Those are the fundamental differences. And I think there are other maybe nuances.

But, you know, one of the things that I find interesting, the two most civil campaigns of the Republican primary are the ones still on their feet. And I do think that says something about both the senator's campaign and ours. It looks like Republicans really are responding to a more message-driven and positive campaign.

I think that's good for our party. I'd like to say, I think it's good for America.

BLITZER: I know you've said you didn't major in math when you were in college, you majored in miracles...

HUCKABEE: Yes.

BLITZER: ... which is an excellent line, by the way.

You need 1,191 delegates at the Republican convention in St. Paul to be the Republican presidential nominee. Now, a lot of experts in math have done the math. They say there's no way you're going to get that, but there is theoretically a way you could prevent John McCain from getting 1,191 delegates.

And if on the first round he doesn't have that, it would go to the second round. Then all bets are off because the pledge delegates could vote for whoever they wanted.

Is that your strategy, to try to prevent him from getting 1,191 delegates going up to the convention in St. Paul?

HUCKABEE: Wolf, we're not smart enough to think that far down the road. We're trying to get through Kansas and Washington, Louisiana and then Virginia, and Maryland and the District of Columbia next Tuesday. And we'll start from there.

Our strategy has always been, let's stay in this game, let's keep gas in the tank and air in the tires until somebody gets 1191. And we're still there.

And, you know, we're not going to pretend that we know exactly how it's going to play out. I think everybody that has predicted how it's going to play out, one thing about it they're consistent in, they've all been wrong.

Nobody would have predicted where this race would be today even a month ago, certainly not five, six months ago. So when people are telling me what the math is and how it's going to work out, I'm saying, OK, you've been 100 percent wrong so far, why on earth are we going to believe that you've suddenly got it all figured out?

BLITZER: March 4th is an important contest in Texas, which is a big state. A lot of Republican delegates at stake there.

The Republican governor, Rick Perry, urged you to drop out of the contest now. How does that make you feel, when you hear the governor of Texas say to you, a former governor of Arkansas, not very far away...

HUCKABEE: Yes.

BLITZER: ... you know what, it's over for you Governor Huckabee, get out of this contest? HUCKABEE: It just makes me more motivated to go win. You know, the fact is he first endorsed Rudy Giuliani. Rudy's out of the race. Then he jumped on John McCain's team. Why would I really want to follow the advice of somebody who is supporting two other candidates instead of me?

So here's what I would say -- I've got a lot of strong support in Texas. I'll take Chuck Norris any day. Chuck's a Texan. I'll take his support and his wife, Gena's. And we're going to win Texas.

We've got great, great organization building there, and that's going to be a big state for us. And I don't know if you saw it, but the other night on "The Colbert Report," I took the state of Texas on an air hockey table. That was a prediction of things to come.

BLITZER: And you're saying Chuck Norris can take down Rick Perry? Is that what you're saying?

HUCKABEE: I would think even Rick Perry might acknowledge that.

But the point is, I'm not going to sit around and let people who don't support me dictate the direction of my campaign. Why would I do that? That would be insane.

Here's what I will tell you, Wolf -- not one supporter of mine, not one endorser of mine has come to me, publicly or privately, and said, you know, Mike, I really think it's time for you to get out. You know what they've done? They've gone to our Web site and they have lit it up with contributions.

Our people are going crazy. They're coming to our rallies, they're fired up. And they're saying, don't get out.

That's the message I'm getting from the people who support me. And so, I'm going to listen to those folks. They're the ones who got me this far. And until they tell me it's over, we're in this thing.

BLITZER: Governor Huckabee, congratulations once again.

Thanks very much for joining us.

HUCKABEE: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll see you out on the campaign trail.

HUCKABEE: Bye-bye.

Huckism: It's Better To Be Right And Even Not Win, Than To Be Wrong And Win.  Mike Huckabee

If anyone needs to take responsibility, it would be John McCain whose McCain-Feingold finance act creates that nonsense.

I think that was one of the worst things that ever happened in campaign election law.

You know, I’m not going to jail so I can make contact, tell these people privately what I’ve told them publicly: If you’re doing pushcalling, you’re hurting us. I think I’ve made that clear. I think it hurt us in South Carolina; I think in New Hampshire, I think it hurt us in Iowa. So, I’ll say it again: I think pushpolling is a deplorable, despicable way to campaign. If someone things they’re helping us, they’re not. If they want to spend their money, there are a lot of other ways for it to be spent that would be helpful, this isn’t. Now, I can’t say that to them, because under McCain Feingold, I’m not allowed to have any coordination with them.

If Sen. McCain hadn’t pushed that bill through and created a stifling of free speech for some groups but an opening for others, we wouldn’t be having this discussion today. So for his people to call on me to stop it? Has to be one of the most bizarre comments in this election cycle.  - Mike Huckabee

“So instead of asking me to get out, the Republicans ought to be begging me to stay in so that we still have a contest going on – something you guys ought to be watching.” - Mike Huckabee

“Because you know and I know if I were to drop out today, nobody would be paying attention to any Republican until the Obama-Hillary race is settled.” - Mike Huckabee

“If competition in the marketplace is what creates a strong economy, wouldn’t competition in the political marketplace create a stronger political environment in which to function. It, to me, is an absolute defiance of the basic, most essential Republican principle – that we are somehow better off if we just don’t have any competition. “ - Mike Huckabee