Mike Huckabee won't run in 2012

Fox News: Mike Huckabee said Saturday there would be no sequel to his surprisingly strong 2008 White House bid, in which he won the Iowa Republican caucus and finished second in the primaries to Sen. John McCain.

"All the factors say go, but my heart says no," Huckabee, who was considered the GOP frontrunner in several national polls, said on his Fox News Channel show.

The show is normally prerecorded before it airs at 8 p.m. ET, but Huckabee saved the last 10 minutes of tonight’s broadcast to make his announcement live. [MORE]

I think Huckabee made a wise decision. Unlike Mitt Romney, I think Huckabee realizes that he just doesn't have what it takes for 2012. The base is much more savvy than 2008 and far less forgiving about spotty records.

Despite the media's love of early polling, I believe Huckabee would have struggled to match his 2008 performance. People are looking for far more than witty rhetoric and are clamoring for real fighter. Huckabee's "soft" approach simply will not do.

Without Huckabee in the race, conservatives can continue to focus their attentions on real conservative candidates like Herman Cain, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: Fox News
Video h/t: Mediaite

Huck 2012? Tune in tomorrow

ABC News: UPDATED: Former Arkansas governor and potential presidential aspirant Mike Huckabee is telling a radio audience on Friday that he plans to make “a very important announcement” over the weekend.

“This weekend be sure to catch my Fox News television show,” Huckabee says. “A very important announcement coming this Saturday.”
Huckabee did not elaborate on the nature of the announcement, which he teased on his syndicated radio program “The Huckabee Report.”

“I’m not exactly sure what the content’s going to be,” Hogan Gidley, the executive director of Huckabee's political action committee, told ABC News. “He doesn’t go around throwing around a big announcement for nothing.” [MORE]

I am hoping he is going to say NO. Huckabee has always struck me as a Republican Bill Clinton. A crafty politician who is often too cute by half. A look at Huckabee's record as governor and it is pretty clear he is not a staunch conservative. The last thing we need in 2012 is a president without solid principles or convictions.

The only upside to Huckabee running in 2012 would be to see him do his damnedest to undermine Mitt Romney. Romney could not dispatch Huckabee in 2008 and I doubt he could in 2012. Huck might just be the thing to make sure Romney loses the nomination.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: ABC News
Via: Politico

Huckabee clarifies his Natalie Portman comments

Mike Huckabee has been making quite a bit of noise lately.  First, there was that slip of the tongue about where Obama was raised and now he has gotten into a row over comments about Natalie Portman.

Huckabee:"You know Michael, one of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine,'" Huckabee said. "But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock [sic]."

Huckabee made this comment during the same interview where he misstated where Obama was raised. Huckabee has now issued a clarifying statement.

 "In a recent media interview about my new book, A Simple Government, I discussed the first chapter, 'The Most Important Form of Government Is a Father, Mother, and Children,'" Huckabee said in a statement obtained by CNN. "I was asked about Oscar-winner Natalie Portman's out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Natalie is an extraordinary actor, very deserving of her recent Oscar trophy and I am glad she will marry her baby's father. However, contrary to what the Hollywood media reported, I did not "slam" or "attack" Natalie Portman, nor did I criticize the hardworking single mothers in our country."

 I think Huckabee is correct in his original statement about there being a  risk of glamorizing single motherhood.  Time and time again we witness the struggle single mothers must endure and not always successfully.  That being said, I think if Huckabee is seriously considering running in 2012 then he has to watch out for getting into big battles over social issues.  


I am not saying that social conservative issues are not important [they inevitably ties into economic issues], but anyone looking to beat Obama will have to have "focus like a laser" on economic issues.  Big battles over social issues will only help to create distractions for the left to muddy the waters.  In just one interview, Huckabee has now created two distracting topics for the left.


Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Fix
Via: CNN

Huckabee: "Obama grew up in Kenya"

Mike Huckabee has stirred up a hornet's nest today with these comments he said on the Steve Malzberg show.

Politico: “One thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American,” Huckabee said in response.

“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather,” Huckabee added.

Huckabee's spokesman has issued a correction.

Says his spokesman Hogan Gidley to POLITICO:

“Governor Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in ‘Kenya.’ The Governor meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia.”

“When the Governor mentioned he wanted to know more about the President, he wasn’t talking about the President’s place of birth – the Governor believes the President was born in Hawaii. The Governor would however like to know more about where President Obama’s liberal policies come from and what else the President plans to do to this country – as do most Americans.”

The way the left is carrying on over the whole thing, you would swear Huckabee dissed Obama's mother and Michelle too! They are shrieking "birther" all over the place!

I think they are outraged because they know that Huckabee has a way of being too cute by half.  Remember that campaign ad during the primaries?

 

You never could really tell one way or another whether that cross was a fluke or if it was purposely placed there.  This slip of the tongue by Huckabee has the same feel. 

Huckabee has come out saying there is no truth to the birther theory, but with an mere slip of the tongue (Kenya instead of Indonesia) he could be giving a nod to birthers while maintaining credible deniability. 

Do I think Huckabee is sincere when he says it was nothing more than a slip of the tongue?  To tell the truth, I am not sure either way.  That is because I have always found Huckabee to be a Republican version of Bill Clinton.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Politico

Via: Politico

Via: The State

Video h/t: Mediaite