No More Mr. Nice Huck

The post-election, book-peddling Mike Huckabee is folksy and affable as ever, but he's no longer pulling his punches when it comes to his party's run at the presidency: If he’d been the nominee, the election “would’ve been very different,” Huckabee tells Lauren Collins in the New Yorker. “I would’ve campaigned that the economy was headed toward meltdown. I was saying this back when I was getting laughed at by the Wall Street Journal.”

Huckabee’s likewise miffed his VP candidacy evaporated, while Sarah Palin, with similar views and experience, was chosen. "It was like they suddenly decided that everything they disliked about me was OK. She was given a pass by some of the very people who said I wasn’t prepared.” Huckabee doesn't skimp on opinions, from Beyonce (“amazing”) to pre-nups (“horrible”). Just don’t ask him about 2012. “For gosh sake,” he says, “just give it a rest, please!” (More Mike Huckabee stories.)