One of Mike Huckabee’s favorite strategies during his primary campaign was to show up in local churches for Sunday services and speak from the pulpit. It was something he did repeatedly and he always insisted that he was there to deliver a sermon, not a political speech, though it was often rather difficult to tell the two apart.
Now that he is out on the trail again, this time selling his new book, it looks like he’s dusted off his favorite play from his campaign playbook:
As guest pastor of a Sunday evening church service at Westside Baptist Church, Mike Huckabee wasted no time joking about his unique situation of delivering a sermon as a former politician who once vied for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination … Although Huckabee, 53, told the congregation he wasn’t there “to be political,” the first 20 minutes of his 40-minute sermon was sprinkled with references to the presidential election and self-deprecating commentary on his own unsuccessful bid to capture the nomination.
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In an interview shortly after signing hundreds of copies of his new book, Huckabee, who now keeps busy hosting a weekly Fox News Channel show, said he’s taking it one step at a time.
“It’s too early to start thinking about that,” he said regarding a possible second bid for the presidency.
Of course Huckabee has to say that it’s too early to be thinking about another presidential run, but considering that he ended his new book with a pretty definitive declaration that he intends to make another run, that is a little hard to believe.
And news like this only serves to make it even harder to believe:
Barack Obama is more than six weeks away from assuming the presidency, and the next Iowa caucuses are more than three years away, but a national poll out Friday suggests that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin top the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls.
Huckabee leads in the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Friday. The survey is an early measure of possible support for the next GOP presidential nomination.
The margin for error in the poll means that Mike Huckabee (34%) is essentially tied with Sarah Palin (32%), but he still comes in ahead of other possible candidates like Mitt Romney (28%), Newt Gingrich (27%), Rudy Giuliani (23%), and Bobby Jindal (19%).
