Mike Huckabee

The man trying to provide Rep. Todd Akin the softest possible landing after the congressman's foolish comments about pregnancy and rape was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Akin during his run to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate. In the furor over Akin's remarks and increasing pressure for him to drop out of his race against Sen. Claire McCaskill,  Huckabee used his syndicated radio program Monday to give the embattled candidate a safe venue to express remorse and his determination to remain in the race.

About two weeks after the next president is elected, Mike Huckabee will publish a book sharing details on his failed bid for the White House and offering his vision for remodeling the conservative movement. Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Group (USA), said it would publish the former Arkansas governor and onetime Republican presidential hopeful's next book, to be released Nov. 18.

'Things can get pretty rough in a political campaign, and in the thick of a fight, it's easy to lose sight of your opponent's finer qualities.' -- Mitt Romney, endorsing John McCain, his former rival for the GOP nomination 'What I'm concerned about is that there are a whole lot of people out here in the middle of America who are feeling left out.' -- Mike Huckabee, on the GOP establishment rallying around McCain

Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet, made national history when they both filed to run for statewide office. The Republican governor is seeking his second full term, while his wife is running for secretary of state in her first bid for public office. The National Governors Assn. and the Council of State Governments knew of no other governor and spouse running for statewide elected office at the same time. The Huckabees said that they see no conflict of interest if both win. Gov.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won several Republican primaries in the 2008 presidential race, said Saturday night that he would not make a run for the White House in 2012. Huckabee's decision was a secret to all but his close family until he revealed it on his weekly Fox News Channel program. Since losing the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, Huckabee has fashioned a lucrative post-political career as an author, speaker and contributor for Fox News, where he makes about $500,000 a year in a contract that goes through 2012.

As the Mike Huckabee campaign prepared to air a television advertisement attacking Mitt Romney in the last days before the Iowa caucuses, one crucial player argued strenuously against the spot. Her name was Janet Huckabee. Mike Huckabee would eventually announce at a news conference that he was overruling most of his advisors and would not air the ad. He described this as an act of conscience, but he was also bowing to the wishes of his wife of 33 years.

Mike Huckabee's bid for the Republican presidential nomination looks hopeless, but he continues to charm audiences on the campaign trail with his affability and folksy wit. In the days before Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, the former Arkansas governor quipped that: * He was accustomed to rough political fights from his experience in Arkansas, where being a Republican in a state with powerful Democratic politicians was "like being a fire hydrant in a neighborhood filled with dogs."

GOP presidential candidate and self-described "recovering foodaholic" Mike Huckabee told the Southern Governors' Assn. convention in Biloxi that an obesity epidemic could cause serious problems for the American economy and national security. "Today we hear a lot about the war on terror, how we need to fight it," said Huckabee, who lost 110 pounds several years ago when he was governor of Arkansas.

Join a live video discussion from members of the Los Angeles Times' political team today at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.  Los Angeles Times Washington columnist Doyle McManus will host a half-hour conversation from the Google+ Hangout Studio at the heart of the convention. He'll be joined by The Times' politics editor Cathleen Decker and Top of the Ticket columnist and cartoonist David Horsey . They'll be discussing Monday night's keynote speech by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ann Romney's appeal to the convention's heartstrings, and Wednesday night's speech by vice presidential nominee Paul D. Ryan.

Tim Pawlenty's lookin' for some Huck Luck. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Huckabee’s daughter and an architect of the former Arkansas governor’s shocking win in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, is joining Pawlenty’s campaign as a strategist. Sanders, who has always been her father’s closest political adviser, fits with Pawlenty’s current all-Iowa, all-the-time strategy. Mike Huckabee won Iowa by mounting a strong retail campaign, scoring well with Christian conservatives, and branding himself a straight-talking populist.