My (admittedly) twisted theory on why Mike Huckabee is staying in the race...

Mike Huckabee - former Baptist minister turned Arkansas governor, guitar player (evidently the group "Boston" wants him to stop playing "More than a Feeling"), and Don Quixote-esque Republican candidate for President.

That last point begs the question - why exactly is Mike Huckabee still running for President, when John McCain has the nomination statistically clinched? I have a couple ideas on this that are somewhat predictable and normal, and then one idea that may sound crazy, but does have some logical merit (regardless of how demented it may be). First, the normal 3 reasons:

1. He's positioning himself to be a strong Vice-Presidential candidate. Everyone knows that John McCain is struggling to win over religious/social conservatives. Mike Huckabee might be thinking: "Hey, I've been winning in the south and with Evangelical voters nationwide - maybe if I stay in this race and pick up some more delegates, McCain may pick me for VP!" Now this idea is somewhat ludicrous on his face - but it offers a plausible reason why Huckabee is winning despite having no hope of gaining the nomination.

2. He's positioning himself for 2012. It's never to early to think about your next campaign -perhaps Huckabee is trying to build those grassroot networks and that name recognition that could make him a force for the nomination in 4 years.

3. He's increasing his lecture circuit fees. This past week, Huckabee honored a prior commitment and spoke for a fee at a conference in the Cayman islands. This is, essentially, his career - he's a paid public speaker. What better way to increase your honorariums than to be on morning talk shows, political news magazines, and print media as still being a candidate for President?

Okay, all of those are normal, or at the very least borderline rationale reasons for staying in the race (despite having no mathematical possibility of gaining the nomination). Now, here is my one somewhat sick and demented reason:

4. John McCain is 72 years old. Earlier in this campaign, Huckabee surrogate/supporter Chuck Norris explicitly mentioned John McCain's age as a problem - namely that he was too old and could essentially die at any minute (god forbid) to be our nation's President. Now, I don't think for a second that John McCain is too old to be President - frankly, the man has more energy than many people I know that are half his age, and I would never bet against a man who A) survived torture in a Viet Cong prison and B) who has a 90-something year old mother who is travelling with him on the campaign trail. He quite simply has the genes, energy, good health and fortitude to live to be 100.

But still. He is 72. And here's Huckabee. He knows that with a few more delegates (39, according to MSNBC's latest count) he will surpass Mitt Romney officially as #2 in the GOP in terms of delegates. He's running a shoe-string budgeted campaign where contributions continue to flow-in, and he has minimal (if any) expenditures going out. The press/pop culturalists love him (see the hilarious brawl between Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, and Steven Colbert over who "created" Huckabee, or Huckabee's almost daily morning interviews on MSNBC's Morning Joe), and staying in the race helps him (as noted above) with possibly becoming the VP, becoming a frontrunner in 2012, and upping his speaking fees. And he has nothing else to do.

So with all of those factors telling him to stay in the race, John McCain's age is the icing on the cake. Imagine, for a brief (horrible) moment that the worst were to happen, and in the upcoming six-and-a-half months until the Republican National Convention (September 1-4, 2008), John McCain for some reason was unable to continue as the Republican nominee.

To my knowledge, there is no provision for who takes over the nomination in such a circumstance - but certainly given the pre-modern media history of conventions, I'd wager a guess that the nomination would come out of a brokered convention. GOP delegates would have a battle and debate over who could best represent the party in the absence of their selected nominee, looking at party elders, governors, senators and others for possible candidates. It's likely many Republicans would throw their hat into the ring. And certainly the candidates who had already run in 2008 would be interested in securing the nomination they could not win in primaries and caucuses against McCain.

And who would be the favorite to be the nominee in those circumstances, provided he picks up 39 more delegates and surpasses Romney for #2? That's right - Mike Huckabee.

So see - there is a reason for Huckabee to stay in this race....at least until he picks up 39 more delegates.