Could Fox News be spawning another candidate for president? 
 
 Judging by the noises that Mike Huckabee is suddenly making, that’s a strong possibility. 
 
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 The host of a Saturday night show on FNC, Huckabee made a bid for the White House in 2008 and flirted with the idea in 2012. But nobody had been talking about him for 2016, and he has quite deliberately set out to change that with a string of interviews. 
 
 “I didn’t want any misinformation that I’ve told people I’m running—that’s not the case,” Huckabee told me yesterday. “I wanted to be honest and say, sure I’m looking at it.” 
 
 Once Huckabee started having meetings with potential donors and supporters, including some who haven’t backed him before, talking to the press was “just a matter of trying to shoot straight with people,” he says. 
 
 A major question for the former Arkansas governor is whether to give up his lucrative Fox perch—a decision that loomed large as he agonized about whether to jump into the last campaign—along with his radio commentaries. 
 
 Huckabee would have to leave the Fox payroll if he started taking serious steps toward the Republican primaries, such as forming an exploratory committee and raising money. That’s what happened with Fox contributors Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum in the 2012 cycle. 
 
 He is very mindful of the prospect of having “zero income,” Huckabee told me, “unlike Senate candidates who continue to get a paycheck even if they’re not showing up for work. I emptied out the treasury when I ran in 2008 and cashed in everything I could cash in.” 
 
 The other overriding question hanging over a Huckabee candidacy is the same one he wrestled with last time: could he raise enough money to be competitive? Huckabee ran a shoestring campaign in ’08, when he was initially written off by the press until winning the Iowa caucus, and doesn’t want to be the poverty candidate again. 
 
 In a coordinated effort to raise his potential presidential profile, Huckabee granted three interviews at week’s end to show the media that he should be in the mix. 
 
 With Jonathan Martin in the New York Times: 
 
 “Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas has not been among the Republicans frequently named as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, but he would like that to change. ‘I’m keeping the door open,’ Mr. Huckabee said in an interview here Thursday night about the possibility of seeking his party’s nomination again.” 
 
 With Karen Tumulty in the Washington Post: 
 
 “Add another name to the list of potential GOP presidential contenders for 2016. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — the winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses, who took a pass on the 2012 presidential race — says he might be willing to give it another try. In an interview Thursday night, Huckabee said he is receiving encouragement to run ‘from places where I never got it before.’” 
 
 With CBN’s David Brody: 
 
 “In an exclusive backstage television interview with The Brody File, former governor Mike Huckabee says, ‘there’s a new openness now’ for a run at the presidency in 2016. Huckabee says he’s been encouraged to run by top evangelical and financial figures that did not back him in 2008.” 
 
 Huckabee’s social conservatism with a smile, his blue-collar appeal and his background as a minister—not to mention running a state for a decade—give him a singular appeal. Indeed, he is brandishing polling that shows him leading in Iowa and South Carolina. 
 
 But Huckabee noticed that all the chatter is about Chris Christie and Rand Paul and Jeb Bush and Scott Walker and others, and wants to keep his name in the mix to preserve his options. 
 
 Does his Fox platform help keep him in the public eye? Of course. The same was true of Gingrich and Santorum, and Sarah Palin when she pondered a run. 
 
 But if he can’t raise many millions of dollars, he will run out of gas after the early contests, as he did against John McCain. 
 
 Huckabee is a guy who doesn’t have to be president, and he was reluctant to give up his Fox salary as he weighed the race in 2011. 
 
 As he told me then, “I’m not a megalomaniac. I don’t think I’m the only person who can save America. I wouldn’t vote for someone who was that full of themselves. It’s a dangerous thing to have someone in a public office who believes he is not a public servant, he is the messiah.” 
 
 For now, Huckabee is candid in saying that yakking in front of a microphone is far easier than actually governing. And that viewers aren’t the same as voters. 
 
 “A lot of people like Jay Leno,” he says. “I don’t see a Leno-for-president campaign going on.” 
 
 An Iowa Poll Now? 
 
 An absurdly early Des Moines Register poll out yesterday backs up Huckabee’s point. 
 
 Paul Ryan (now under fire on the right for the bipartisan budget deal he brokered with Patty Murray) has a 73 percent approval rating among Iowa Republicans, the survey says. Huckabee in second with 66 percent. Chris Christie, less well matched to the state’s conservative GOP electorate, is at 51 percent. 
 
 Oh, and Hillary Clinton? She clocks in among Iowa Democrats at 89 percent. 
 
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 Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. ||||| Mike Huckabee‘s radio show is ending, but could he be taking a stab at the written word next? 
 
 An ad has popped up on Craigslist seeking reporters for a new venture called Huckabee Post, that already boasts offices in both New York City and Washington D.C. Rumors about a “Huckabee Post” surfaced after his first presidential run in 2008, but perhaps now it’s coming to fruition? 
 
 In the Craigslist ad, the Huckabee Post is described as “a new and exciting online news publication covering news on politics, US, international, media, sports and other general news.” 
 
 In the New York Times Friday morning, Huckabee is quoted as saying he’s keeping the door open to a 2016 presidential run, but no mention of any potential media ventures. 
 
 Mediaite has reached out to Huckabee for comment, but we have not heard back yet. We will update. 
 
 [Photo via screengrab] 
 
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 Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac ||||| Being president is a great job—if you have a serious shot at winning. Howard Kurtz on why the ex-governor picked well-paying punditry. 
 
 I never thought Mike Huckabee would run for president again, largely because he was so open about his doubts. 
 
 Besides, how likely was it that he would make a move at the end of his low-rated Fox show late on a Saturday night? And put the network in the position of having made an in-kind contribution? And that his political advisers would be clueless that he was about to launch a national campaign? 
 
 Huckabee seemed to want to keep the guessing game going at least until June, but Fox executives were pressing him to get in or get out, rather than using the cable channel to keep hope alive. 
 
 The decision was ultimately "a spiritual one," Huckabee told viewers, and after finding "an inexplicable inner peace," he realized: "My heart says no." 
 
 Like any good politician, he first made the case that he could have been a contender. He was at or near the top of the GOP polls while mere "single-digit" candidates were being "touted." He could have raised the money. He could have won outside the South. But as a follower of Jesus Christ, he said, he decided against it. 
 
 It was hardly surprising, especially after an odd hour featuring such guests as Mario Lopez and Ted Nugent. (Who declares for president after that?) Here's a guy who ran a shoestring campaign in 2008, managed to win Iowa, and was the last man left standing when John McCain wrapped up the nomination. Not bad for a former Arkansas governor whose previous claim to fame was writing a book on how he lost 100 pounds. 
 
 But Huckabee didn't want to mount another White House campaign and become a two-time loser, and I'm not sure he was really convinced he could raise enough money to be competitive. He might have given Barack Obama a serious challenge, but first you have to win the nomination. 
 
 And before that, you have to win the wife primary. Huckabee said his wife was supportive of a campaign, even though they would have been subjected to "brutal and savage personal attacks." But was she enthusiastic? Lots of Republicans are having trouble on that front this season. Haley Barbour's wife helped convince him to stay out, and Mitch Daniels' wife is quite reticent as well, although she hasn't slammed the door. 
 
 The former Baptist preacher is telegenic, does well in debates and is conservative enough for most party activists without scaring off moderates. But having been through the meat grinder once, he knew what it would take to win and concluded he didn't have the heart for it. 
 
 Former Arkansa governor Mike Huckabee announced Saturday, May 14, that he will not be running for president. (Lynn Hey / AP Photo) 
 
 Huck's ambivalence was on display when I visited him at the end of 2009 in his Fox News office, where I admired his collection of guitars, including two Fender Stratocasters. If he were to take the plunge, he said, "I'd need to be out courting donors almost nonstop. I really enjoy what I'm doing immensely. I like having a life. There's a certain level of enjoyment in the independence I have. Someone puts a microphone in my face and demands I answer a question, I can say, 'Put it where the sun don't shine.'" 
 
 Huckabee had never made much money, so the $500,000 salary from Fox, plus radio income and speaking fees, means a lot to him, especially since he is building a big house in Florida. 
 
 I spoke to him again a couple of months ago during his book tour, and while he seemed to be enjoying the attention of political reporters, there was no sign of the requisite fire in the belly. Huckabee wasn't at campaign fighting weight (he had bulked up again), he admitted he wasn't sure what to do in Afghanistan, and he praised Michelle Obama (over her anti-obesity campaign). You have to be a little crazy to run for president, and he just seemed, well, sane. 
 
 In fact, he told me, "I'm not a megalomaniac. I don't think I'm the only person who can save America. I wouldn't vote for someone who was that full of themselves." 
 
 In a weak field, Huckabee would have had a shot. The former Baptist preacher is telegenic, does well in debates and is conservative enough for most party activists without scaring off moderates. But having been through the meat grinder once, he knew what it would take to win and concluded he didn't have the heart for it. 
 
 Howard Kurtz is The Daily Beast's Washington bureau chief. He also hosts CNN's weekly media program Reliable Sources on Sundays at 11 a.m. ET. The longtime media reporter and columnist for The Washington Post, Kurtz is the author of five books. 
 
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– Read it into what you will, 2016 prognosticators: Mike Huckabee appears to be launching a news website called the "Huckabee Post," reports Mashable. The development actually surfaced a few days ago when Mediaite spotted this Craigslist ad seeking reporters for “a new and exciting online news publication covering news on politics, US, international, media, sports and other general news.” What's more, Huckabee has given a slew of interviews to big-name media outlets of late to say he's at least considering a run. “I didn’t want any misinformation that I’ve told people I’m running—that’s not the case,” Huckabee tells Howard Kurtz at Fox News. “I wanted to be honest and say, sure I’m looking at it.” Besides, it may be December 2013, but that hasn't stopped the Des Moines Register from publishing a poll of Iowa voters this week, and Huckabee finished second (66%) in favorability ratings to Paul Ryan (73%). For the record, Hillary Clinton trumped them both with her 89% rating among state Democrats. Joe Biden trailed her at 71%.