Here’s the full transcript from former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s June 27, 2010 appearance on FOX News Sunday. Host Chris Wallace pressed Huckabee about a run for the White House in 2012.
WALLACE: Governor, let’s turn to your political future. Where are you on the idea of running for president in 2012?
HUCKABEE: Well, as I’ve said to so many people — and I get asked the question — it doesn’t matter where I am.
“…I have been very adamant that no decision like this would be, should be, or could be made until after the 2010 elections. That’s where our focus needs to be. What happens after that, God only knows and He hasn’t told anyone yet.
WALLACE: But you — clearly, you’re leaving the door open.
HUCKABEE: I haven’t closed the door. I think that would be foolish on my part, especially when poll after poll shows that there is strong sentiment out there. I end up leading a lot of the polls. I’m the Republican that clearly, at this point, does better against Obama than any other Republican. You know, I’m not totally unaware of that.
But that’s a long way from making a decision to run for president. You know, I’ve been there, done that, have a whole warehouse full of T-shirts to prove it. So it’s not like I don’t understand something about what this endeavor would take.
And just because some polls a year and a half out show that there’s some strong support and there would be, you know, maybe some momentum, that’s not reason enough. I still have some debt left from the last campaign that I didn’t even know I had till it was well over.
So there’s just a lot of considerations. But for me the focus is doing what I’m doing, trying to do it well. And one of those things is to enjoy what I’m doing, which I am wonderfully enjoying, doing television and radio and commentary. And that may be where I have (sic). But I’m not ruling anything out at this point.
Chris Cilliza of The Washington Post has a long piece about Huckabee & 2012, and there’s a reference to the 2010 Iowa governor’s race at the very end. Cilliza says Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats — a supporter of Huckabee’s 2008 campaign — has put Huckabee in a “tight spot.” A Huckabee staffer is quoted as saying it was be “disrespectful” of Huckabee to endorse Branstad now, before Vander Plaats has made a decision on an independent run, or whether Vander Plaats himself decides to endorse Branstad. (The ‘graph about this is way toward the end of the article.)
About O.Kay Henderson
Kay is a founding member of the Radio Iowa network newsroom. In 1994, she became the network’s news director. She’s a featured reporter and commentator on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and the 2002 recipient of the Shelley Award.
Huckabee & his pal Vander Plaats need to put their egos aside and endorse Branstad for governor.
If Vander Plaats runs as an inpependent he will be perceived as a “sore loser” with zero political future statewide.