The problem with crediting God for your successes, as Mike Huckabee did in November when he claimed that his rise in the polls was a divine miracle, is that when things go badly, as they are for him now, there can only be one explanation for the reversal: God is expressing His disfavor.

Despite what evangelicals tell themselves — as creationists, they still believe the sun and stars rotate around them — there simply are not enough true believers to win the presidency. Never have been and never will be. Thank God.

A chronic lack of campaign money may finally be catching up to Mike Huckabee.

After a disappointing loss to Senator John McCain in the South Carolina primary — in a state his campaign considered among the most favorable in the country for his evangelical-populist message — Mr. Huckabee has cancelled press buses or charter flights to conserve his cash…

He won the Iowa Republican caucuses by relying on his quick wit, oratory and as many talk-show appearances as he could schedule. He traveled with the actor Chuck Norris and played the bass guitar with local rock bands to help attract crowds.

His Iowa victory drew more attention and several millions of dollars in new contributions, his advisers said, but he spent relatively heavily in South Carolina and his loss there has extinguished his Iowa momentum.

His pullback from Florida and the biggest Feb. 5 states is likely to remove him from serious contention for the nomination, although Mr. Huckabee said he did not believe he was out of it yet.

What’s really going on here, of course, has nothing to do with God and everything to do with political science. The sham marriage between the Republican Party and Christian nationalists has come undone, in large part because during the six years Republicans had complete control of the government, they did not nothing to further the evangelical agenda to amend the Constitution to prohibit abortions and gay marriage.

Except for Sen. Sam Brownback, who dropped out last fall, Huckabee was the only evangelical candidate among the Republicans. But support for him was so tepid that TV preacher Pat Robertson endorsed Rudolph Giuliani, quixotically hoping to build a movement among terror-addicted Christianists behind the tough-talking, albeit thrice-married and socially liberal, mayor of 9/11. When that didn’t work, Christian conservatives had nowhere to go but Huckabee.

Like Robertson, who came in second in the Iowa caucuses in 1988 before flaming out, Huckabee never had, nor ever would have, the support of the Republican establishment. This is especially so because he often spouts populist ideals,which are anathematic to today’s GOP and its helter-skelter drive to hand over U.S. treasure and sovereignty to multinational corporations.

Huckabee never had the money; he had only raised $2.3 million in the first three quarters of 2007. But mainly, he never had the votes. Despite what evangelicals tell themselves — as creationists, they still believe the sun and stars rotate around them — there simply are not enough Christian nationalists to win the presidency. Never have been and never will be.

Thank God.