Update: CNN now reporting Huckabee will drop out tonight.

CNN reporting Mike Huckabee will drop out of the race as soon as this Thursday. Will coordinate with McCain campaign tomorrow before announcement is made.

The third and final Election 2008 skit on SNL I am sharing from last night. Gov. Mike Huckabee appeared to talk about his statistical chances and getting out of the race with good timing.

MSNBC reports that Mike Huckabee has responded to the NYT story alleging an affair and improper practice from John McCain eight years ago. Huckabee said he has “Always known John McCain to be a man of the highest integrity”.

ABC News reports that Mike Huckabee will make a cameo appear on this weeks episode of Saturday Night Live. The episode will be the first since the show went off the air due to the writers strike. Tina Fey is hosting with musical guest Carrie Underwood. No other information is known about how Huckabee will be used.

NBC: McCain 800, Huckabee 240, Paul 14 (Romney 282)
CBS: McCain 790, Huckabee 199, Paul 10 (Romney 166)
ABC: McCain 819, Huckabee 240, Paul 14 (Romney 282)
CNN: McCain 812, Huckabee 217, Paul 16 (Romney 286)
AP: McCain 821, Huckabee 241, Paul 14, (Romney 288)

With only 87% of Washington State reporting and 242 votes separating Mike Huckabee and John McCain the Washington State Republican Party chairman called the vote for Senator McCain. The Huckabee camp is questioning the call and honestly I am wondering where the rest of the vote count is and why it is taking so long!

Here is the Huckabee campaign statement from manager Ed Rollins (found via the Election Law Blog):

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From MSNBC:

Speaking at a press conference after addressing Thomas Road Baptist Church, Huckabee continued to compare himself to Ronald Reagan, who ran in 1976 against the party establishment, which led to a floor fight at the national convention. When reminded that the Republicans lost the 1976, Huckabee said it wasn’t because the party was divided, but because Gerald Ford did not energize the party.

“He never championed himself as a conservative, not a pro-life person for whom that was important,” Huckabee said. “He was a really nice moderate Republican, a true gentleman. But a member of Congress and more a part of the Washington Republican establishment than representing the grassroots of conservatism.”

“I would argue that if we do not have a candidate who can excite the base of this country, and particularly the base of our party and make them energetic and going out and getting the folks to put the yard signs in and making phone calls and traveling all over the country asking people to vote, we can lose again,” he said.

Patrick Ruffini gives his thoughts saying:

The race isn’t any less over than it was 48 hours ago. But it seems likely that Huckabee could accumulate a significant number of delegates and (possibly) keep McCain under the magic number until after March 4th.

There was a question of whether Huckabee supporters would invariably flow to Romney; but Romney voters sure are flocking to Huckabee, raising a legitimate question of whether a social conservative-led anti-McCain bloc would have fared better in the early primaries.

I now expect the protest vote for Huckabee to be quite strong in most states as turnout plummets, maybe 30-40% in the South and Midwest and 20-30% elsewhere, rising to outright victories in caucuses and in the Deep South.

From my understanding of the numbers even if Huckabee won every primary and caucus from this point on he still couldn’t win the nomination. It is definitely as Ruffini says a “protest vote” and though McCain won Washington it does send a message especially looking at how many people still voted for Romney in yesterdays contests. Many in the Republican party are not happy with McCain and it shows.

Mike Huckabee will win Louisiana adding to his win in Kansas.

From ABC News yesterday:

ABC News’ Kevin Chupka Reports: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee needs a lot of things to fall his way and plenty to go wrong for Republican front runner, Sen. John McCain, but as Huckabee said this morning, “I still believe in the impossible.”

“Let’s say we get to the convention and Romney releases his delegates. They can come towards me,” Huckabee replied. “There’s also a lot of factors that can happen. Any given day, a candidate can say one word and it gets YouTubed and his campaign’s done.”