Below is a summary of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s 15-minute interview with Steve Deace on WHO-Radio Des Moines, Iowa, earlier this week, along with a few of my own thoughts.
In an early exchange, Deace asked Huckabee the six million dollar question, “Are you going to run for president?”
“I’m not ruling it out. And that’s not a yes, but it’s definitely not a no.”
Some pundits had been foolishly suggesting that Mike Huckabee is a money-grubber who would not run for president because he would have to give up a lucrative job as talk show host on Fox News. But I think they have it backwards. He certainly is making more money than he did as a pastor, or governor. Moreover, Governor Huckabee admits struggling at times during the 2008 campaign to raise money and that it hurt him, especially as the campaign season moved past Iowa and South Carolina and into bigger states like Florida, and then on to Super Tuesday. Perhaps this time he will have a personal war chest, at least to get the campaign rolling. It sounds to me like he’s running.
Gov. Huckabee also suggested some changes in the way campaigns should run. For example, current members of the House or Senate should resign if they run for president rather than continue to receive a taxpayer paid salary while missing vote after vote. He also thinks it should be illegal to convert funds raised in one campaign to the coffers of a subsequent campaign (for example, from a Senate race to a presidential race).
Huckabee believes the ousting of justices in Iowa had huge implications, not just for this state, but the entire USA. He emphasized that we must remember that Courts don’t have the final say: there are two other co-equal branches of government.
A Few More Bytes to Eat From From Huckabee:
1) Success rate of candidates endorsed by HuckPac in the 2010 mid-term elections was about 80%, according to Huckabee. One standard he reiterated was that he only supported “solidly pro-life candidates”. This included not only US House and Senate races but state-wide races and even some local races nation-wide.
2) He has been willing to correct the News Division of Fox News when they misreport about his 2008 candidacy (for example, when they wrongly report that Huckabee placed 3rd in the primaries behind Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, when he actually ended up with more delegates).
TIME CORRECTED: Governor Huckabee will be the keynote speaker at the “Celebrate the Family” event at First Federated Church in Des Moines this Sunday, November 21st at 2:00 p.m.. Find more information about it at www.IFPC.Org.