With Sarah Palin flogging a new book and a new TV show, it’s tough for other would-be 2012 Republican presidential candidates to squeeze their way into the picture — but Mike Huckabee is trying.
The former-governor-of-Arkansas-turned-FOX-News-talk-show-host was in Iowa over the weekend, talking to a gathering of evangelicals, doing interviews with the local press and connecting with GOP leaders.
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Then, on Monday, he made an appearance on “The View,” where Joy Behar called him her “favorite Republican.”
And if he runs, he expects to win, Huckabee told Behar’s boss, Barbara Walters.
“I wouldn’t run if I didn’t think I could,” he said. “Obviously you don’t run in a race thinking, ‘Boy I’d love to go and lose, that’d be a lot of fun.’”
Huckabee was one of four potential GOP candidates matched up against President Obama in a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday. Huckabee pulled 44 percent to Obama’s 46 percent, the second-best showing among the Rebublicans.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was the only Republican to beat the president in the poll, 45 percent to 44. The president has a big edge over Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, 45 to 36 percent, and a similar lead over Palin, 48 to 40 percent.
Palin is also headed for Iowa and South Carolina as part of a book tour for “America By Heart.”
Meanwhile, she’s all over the airwaves: as a guest on Walters’ upcoming primetime special; on Sean Hannity’s FOX News show Monday night; and as the star of a new reality show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” that is a ratings blockbuster on cable.
She’s even become a semi-regular on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” the country’s highest-rated show, where the former governor’s daughter, Bristol, is among the finalists.
