Values Voters Heart Huckabee, Romney

It was a meeting of the closed minds in Washington this weekend.

The Family Research Council and their anti-gay allies summoned the Republican presidential candidates for the so-called Values Voter summit. The entire gang turned out, but it’s Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee who came out on top.

Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and a convert to the anti-abortion cause, claimed a slim victory Saturday in a straw poll of Christian conservative voters thanks largely to organizational efforts to pull in online votes.

Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and a former Baptist pastor, placed a close second — with Romney claiming 1,595 votes and Huckabee 1,565. However, among votes cast on-site at the Values Voter Summit, Huckabee, the clear favorite in a hall full of conservative voters, claimed more than half of the total ballots.

Arkansas Governor Huckabee and former Massachusetts Governor Romney may be a match made in heaven for the right wingers: they both detest abortion, gay rights and immigrants. Huckabee did a good job packaging his party’s politics, telling the crowd:

But some things are not negotiable, the sanctity of life, the definition of marriage…Let us never sacrifice our principles for anybody’s politics — not now, not ever.

Huckabee’s statement speaks volumes about the Republican party right now. We’ll have a full analysis later this morning.