A Man, a Mission

SAN ANTONIO Mike Huckabee could read the writing on the wall.

"I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna -- I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours . . . I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country -- Victory or Death."

The delusions of a presidential candidate whose time has passed? Actually, no. These are the words of Col. William Barret Travis, viewed by Huckabee as he toured the Alamo shrine here Thursday afternoon. And the former Arkansas governor drew inspiration for his lost-cause campaign for the Republican nomination from Travis -- who, in dying with Davy Crockett and the rest of his men here in 1836, became part of one of the most heroic failures in history.

"His letter is one of the greatest," Huckabee announced, after asking the tour guide to show him the famous words. He then went out into the Alamo plaza and, besieged not by Mexican soldiers but by autograph seekers, traced a line between the defenders of the Alamo to his own battle against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain and the Republican Party establishment.

"I refuse to allow the establishment or the party bosses in Washington or anywhere else to tell us this is over," he said. "For me to pull out of the election before Texas gets to vote would not only be unacceptable, it would be inexcusable," he said. "It's not Republican, and it's not American."

What Sam Houston was to warfare, Mike Huckabee is to the photo op. In Iowa, he won the envy of his rivals when he invited the cameras to join him on a hunting trip. He went jogging for the cameras (to show his fitness) and played the electric bass guitar on Leno (to show his hipness). On Thursday, it was time to demonstrate his stick-to-itiveness -- and there's no better place for that than the Alamo, which just happens to be in Texas, one of the next big primary states.

"People sometimes think of the Alamo as a defeat, but it actually was the springboard to Texas's victory and independence," Huckabee explained in justifying his journey. Well, that's true, Governor; Houston made "Remember the Alamo" his battle cry when he defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto. But every one of the men guarding the Alamo in 1836 was slaughtered.

Still, there's nothing like a visit to the Alamo to put one's troubles in perspective. As an added bonus, the visit allowed Huckabee to play Col. Travis to McCain's Santa Anna -- and McCain, author of the immigration "amnesty" detested by conservatives, was once again on the side of the Mexicans.

Gen. Antonio L¿pez de Santa Anna would no doubt be quite puzzled had he arrived at the Alamo back in 1836 and found it looking as it did Thursday afternoon: six satellite trucks outside, 14 television cameras, and dueling snow-cone stands in the plaza. Inside the fortress's limestone walls, a gift shop could supply Santa Anna's army with plastic Bowie knives, Davy Crockett hats, coon tails, Alamo mints, cowboy guitars, "Remember the Alamo" Frisbees, even "Alamo baseballs" inscribed with Col. Travis's fateful words.

A few hundred Huckabee supporters gathered in the plaza to show their support, some carrying signs announcing "Homeschool Kids Love Huckabee" or "Honk for Huckabee." Among the crowd, Lorraine Cheeseman, wearing Huckabee stickers and pins, said she liked the symbolism. "He needs to stick with it to the very end," she said. "Next time I see him as president, I'll say, 'Remember the Alamo!' " And does she expect that day to come? "Miracles happen," Lorraine said.

Miracles seemed to be on Huckabee's mind as well in planning the Alamo visit. "Even when Travis and the people of the Alamo knew what might be an inevitable fate, they did not flinch," he said. "And that's why I think that, when we go to Texas, we go with a real sense of resolve and purpose and direction and, you know, a commitment to see it through."

And besides, he added, "this time, you know, the Alamo story may turn out differently."

Huckabee, in cowboy boots and a business suit, began his tour in front of the Alamo shrine, near the plaque bearing Travis's famous "Victory or Death" letter. He showed Huckabee Crockett's rifle and buckskin vest, and the room where the women and children sheltered during the sacking of the Alamo. "I am always inspired by the heroic story of this sacred place," Huckabee wrote in the guest book.

Huckabee went into the courtyard, where the words of Alamo defender James Bowie are displayed: "We will rather die in these ditches than give it up to the enemy."

"Pretty incredible," Huckabee concluded. He then went out into the plaza and, for the TV cameras, delivered his own, 21st-century version of Col. Travis's letter.

"You don't engage in your battles only because you anticipate that you're going to win them; you engage in your battles because you believe they're right," Huckabee declared. "When you're doing the right thing, the outcome is less important than it is that you put your every moment and every ounce of energy into it."

Invoking the words of Crockett -- "believe you're right and go forward" -- Huckabee forecast a victory in the Texas primary on March 4 and a brokered Republican convention in the summer. Never mind that his odds are about as good as those of 200 Alamo defenders facing thousands of Mexican soldiers. "The people of Texas," he said, "will have made a statement to the rest of the nation that the election isn't over until Texas says it is."

In other words: Remember the Alamo.