Mike Huckabee Presidential Rumors Quashed After 10 Minutes Of Widespread Worry [UPDATE]
The last time we really cared what Mike Huckabee was up to was in mid-May, when he opted out of a presidential race on his teevee show and accompanied Ted Nugent on the Nuge's famous song about venereal diseases.
"All the factors say go," Huckabee told his audience, and also the political journalists tuning in to his show for the very first time in their careers, "but my heart says no." Donald Trump appeared in a video, pretending that he was still running for president, and then we all got on with our lives.
Mike Huckabee has been approached by Republican and conservative activists unhappy with the current crop of presidential hopefuls and he is considering entering the fray, two sources who have spoken with Huckabee told Reuters.The former Arkansas governor, who made a splash by winning the Iowa caucuses as a candidate in 2008, announced last May on his Fox News show that he would not enter the race.
But the conservative Huckabee, who appeals to evangelical Christians and is seen as an effective campaigner, is taking another look at jumping in, said the two sources, who are close to Huckabee. They spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
That's from Reuters, reported Friday afternoon. I'll let Doug Mataconis sum up the most popular reaction people are having to this:
For a few crazy minutes, the Internet blew up with this news. So what does this mean for your life and those of your loved ones? Probably not much. As with the New York Post's late-in-the-game Chris Christie tease from earlier in the week, this story is based on anonymous sources, one of whom says:
"He is entertaining the request for conversations about it," one of the sources said. "I do not think it is a complete 100 percent 'I'm reconsidering' but he hasn't shut the door on it."
Oh, so he's entertaining the request for conversations? Hey, that's convenient, because this source "close to Huckabee" just started one! How about that?
Practically speaking, I'm not sure how Mike Huckabee's return to the race could work. His biggest success in presidential politics was winning the Iowa caucus in 2008. Iowa is his most favorable territory, but because he never entered the 2012 race, that space has since been carved up by a host of other candidates, most notably Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, who tend to appeal to the same crowd.
He'd also have to get a a fundraising effort and a campaign organization up and running again very quickly, and unless Ed Rollins -- who had hoped to rep Huck in the 2012 bid but ended up running Bachmann's campaign until very recently -- suddenly recovers from the health issues that he says were the reason he quit Bachmann, Huckabee just doesn't have a whole lot of hope at making a legit run for the White House.
RedState's Erick Erickson tweets, "This Reuters report comes as news to the Huck folks it seems. Just got off the phone with one of them," and HuckPAC has told The Hill that there's no truth to this. So I'd say do not lose sleep over the possibility of Huckabee entering the race. Instead, you should wonder why no one seems to care enough about Haley Barbour to start some fun rumors about him.
UPDATE, 4:11 pm: Huckabee himself just appeared on Neil Cavuto's show on Fox News to shoot this rumor dead: "I do not see a path for me, either financially or organizationally." He stressed that the fundamentals favored candidates who got in early and stayed faithful to the task of running for President.
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First Posted: 09/30/2011 3:51 pm Updated: 11/30/2011 4:12 am