With Huckabee out, voters look for a likable candidate | Byron York | Politics | Washington Examiner

Byron York: A look at former candidate Huckabee.

Who Gains with Huck Out?

Maybe nobody.

Good decision, Huck

Huckabee update.
See here also.

Jason Tolbert has a reasoned analysis on Huck's decision.

Huckabee won't run

Mike Huckabee announced on his TV show this evening that he won't run for president in 2012.

Mike Huckabee says Sarah Palin may "run away with it" in the 2012 Republican primaries. He wants to run himself, but seems to be waiting to see what she will do.

The Huckabees, Mike and Janet, have made Florida their home. Well, I like Florida: No state income tax.

Huckabee is out polling Obama. Just wait, that will change.

Adam Graham comes to Huckabee's defense on the clemency issue.

Dan Calabrese, a Christian evangelical, on Huckabee: His political career is finished.

He will never be president. He will never be elected to anything. He can keep hosting his show on Fox News – and he’d better – because it’s the closest to politics he’s ever going to come.
This is a good thing. Huckabee is a good man but not a person who knows how to responsibily handle the authority of public office.

The Haunting

The AP has more on the shooting of Maurice Clemmons and the Huckabee fallout. This story has become the talk of the internet. On Fox News last night, according to the report, Mike Huckabee asserted that Clemmons was released because prosecutors failed to file Clemmons' paperwork on time. Now, that is lame. No doubt Huckabee has been hurt. No way around that.

From the AP report:

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley, whose office opposed Clemmons' parole in 2000 and 2004, said Huckabee's comments were "red herrings." "My word to Mr. Huckabee is man up and own what you did," Jegley said.

See Huckabee video on commuting Clemmons' sentence here.

Power Line has a comment on Huckabee's attempt to blame the system in the Clemmons case.

Mike Huckabee's statement on the Washington state shootings. Basically he blames the system.

Uh-oh

Michelle Malklin: The man sought in the Lakewood, Washington, police shooting had his prison sentence commuted by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The AP also has that information in their report. I always thought that Gov. Huckabee was too quick to grant clemency and disagreed with all those that made the papers. For example, the Wayne Dumond case was highly publicized. I may be wrong but I recall that Gov. Clinton did not make such mistakes. (Yes, he made other mistakes.)

On Huckabee's record see here.  From 1996 to 2004 he used his clemency power 703 times, compared to 624 times for the combined total in Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Huckabee made a routine use of his clemency power, commuting sentences of a dozen murderers.

In the Washington shooting, the man's name is Maurice Clemmons, age 37. He has a long criminal history. Huckabee commuted his sentence in May 2000. Michelle has the full details.

See more on Confederate Yankee.