Huckabee: It's unfair to call Sarah Palin a quitter

Michael McNutt, reporting for the Sooner State's largest newspaper The Oklahoman, writes that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said Sunday that Sarah Palin remains a strong candidate for the White House despite her recent announcement that she will resign as Alaska’s governor on June 26:

"She has had a very different kind of approach in direction and I’m not going to be critical of her because it could turn out to be the smart play for her,” Huckabee said in an interview before speaking to a group of high school students participating in a debate program this week at Oklahoma Christian University.

Huckabee said he was "very surprised” by Palin’s decision. He said it was expected she wouldn’t seek re-election in 2010 to consider a presidential race.

Huckabee said it’s unfair to call her a quitter.

The ordained Baptist minister was the last of John McCain's challengers to drop out of the race for the 2008 Republican Party presidential nomination, and he is considered to one of the leading GOP contenders in the 2012 race for the White House.

- JP