Listen to Mike Huckabee unload on Obama ("he's never run even a Sno-Cone stand") on his Fox News show and you'd probably conclude he's running for president in 2012, writes Howard Kurtz. Huckabee insists that he’s unconcerned with his political career, that he’s really not sure if he'll throw his hat into the ring. But maybe, Kurtz theorizes in the Washington Post, “this is the modern method of presidential plotting: Leave public office, get on the tube, do a book tour a la Sarah Palin."
Huckabee is currently pushing his best-selling book, A Simple Christmas; he has his television show, and his daily commentaries air on 500 stations. "If I were to be a candidate, I'd have to walk away from every bit" of this, he says. "I'm not going to jump in a pool with no water." “He’s been the most successful failed presidential candidate in history,” says his 2008 campaign manager, who’s not shy about the value of the Fox platform. “It's an amazing outlet for a conservative guy to reach conservative voters.” (More Mike Huckabee stories.)