Former Arkansas Governor and unsuccessful candidate for president in 2008, Mike Huckabee all but announced he will be running again in 2016. In response to Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week" who asked if he were at the 50/50 point of making a run for the presidency said he wouldn't have quit his lucrative gig at Fox News if he weren't seriously considering throwing his hat into the increasingly crowded, yet still only speculative, ring of prospective Republican hopefuls, which now includes Romney, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, to name a few.
Well, I think, Martha, the fact that I left the FOX gig, which was a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for me, to leave that, I didn't do it just because I was tired of going to New York every week.
So I think there's a very strong likelihood that sometime later in the spring, which has always been my timetable, I'll make some kind of a declaration and clearly state my intentions, I'll put it that way.
Raddatz asked him about his previous statement that if Jeb Bush were to enter the race he would withdraw. Huckabee did the backstroke.
Well, I think I said I might. I certainly am not making that decision right now, because I like Jeb. We're good friends. He'll be a very formidable candidate. But if I run for president, Martha, it's not going to be because someone else did or did not, it's going to be because I think that the country needs some common sense leadership that brings us back to fiscal sanity where we quit spending money we don't have and stop borrowing money that we can never afford to pay back.
Raddatz then tried to pin him down on his criticism of Obama letting his daughters listen to Beyoncé's music and Huckabee skillfully played both sides, making it clear where the cultural battle lines will be drawn should he run while taking the opportunity to use his book as platform.
You know, if people read the full chapter, it's in the context of first of all saying Beyonce is a wonderful talent. My point is, she doesn't have to do some of the things that she does in the lyrics, because it's not necessary. She has nothing to make up for. She's an amazing talent.
My point was, even in speaking about the Obamas -- and I said about them in the book, they're great parents. But it was President Obama in an interview with Glamour who said that some of the lyrics he won't listen to with his daughters because it embarrasses him.
Well, here's my point, if it embarrasses you then why would you possibly think it's wholesome for your children to put it into their heads.
So that's the point. If you're very concerned about what happens with your children, and the Obamas are. They're great parents. They're careful about making sure their kids get a lot of vegetables and eat right. That's terrific. But what you put in your brain is also important as well as what you put into your body and that was my point based on what the president, himself, said.
So, I think if people read the chapter they see that it's about this cultural divide, the disconnect between the three bubbles of New York, D.C. and Hollywood versus the land of God, guns, grits and gravy, that's where the title comes from.
In other words, if not for the immoral triad of NYC, D.C. and Hollywood Land, it would be such a better country, where portly Christian citizens from the heartland could at long last defend their right to impose their beliefs on the rest of us as we look down the barrel of their assault rifles.
Buckle your seat belts, folks--it's going to be a wild ride.