Back when he ran for President in 2008, and even after, Mike Huckabee took great pride in the fact that even though his campaign was never able to raise huge sums of money, he outlasted many of his better-financed rivals and ended the process far less in debt than most.
But while running a shoe-string campaign may have been novel the first time around, he’s not interested in doing it again, saying that he won’t even consider another run unless a) he can get strong support in the GOP primary and b) that support will be backed up with large sums of money:
What factors will you consider in deciding whether to run for president in 2012?
I think the key factors will be, one, after the midterm elections, whether there is a real sense of frustration with the current administration and a willingness to look for someone else, for one thing. I’d want to know there was real, solid, strong support for me within the Republican Party for a primary, and I can’t even consider running again without the level of financial support that a person needs to carry it all the way. To hear a person tell me, “Gee, I’d really like to see you run,” is great. But if you can’t raise tens of millions of dollars to start and hundreds of millions of dollars to compete, as crazy and as obscene as that is, it really doesn’t matter.
