Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said Sunday that no one should expect the split conservative vote to coalesce around one candidate any time soon. Appearing on ABC's This Week he said it's far-fetched to think the GOP presidential candidates will give up their individual fights for the nomination at this point.
"Who gets to say, all right, I'm the king, the other guys are the princes," he said. "And so, no, there's not going to be some magic moment at which three, or four of these people sit around a campfire toasting marshmallows, singing Kumbaya and giving the nod to one of their competitors."
Back in 2008, Huckabee's second place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll split the conservative vote in Republican primary. He went on to win the Iowa caucus but dropped to third place in the New Hampshire primary. He said he was pressured to drop out of the race in 2008 when it looked like there was no chance of winning the nomination.
"I had people every week tell me, why don't you get out of the way? Why don't you quit? Why don't you just leave, you can't win? That just made me more determined. That makes you mad when you've put your life on the line."
Two days ago Huckabee admitted that Rick Perry's campaign may have been irreparably damaged by Perry's announcement he would "reassess" his campaign after a fifth-place finish in Iowa.
"In essence he did quit. In a campaign you never say I might not make it," he said.