Former presidential hopeful speaks at NYU College Republicans event

When former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was asked to speak at an NYU College Republicans meeting, he laughingly agreed: "Good, will both of them be there?"

Last night at the Kimmel Center Huckabee discussed his disappointment with the media during the 2008 presidential election and his experience as a program host at Fox News.

"It's kind of given me a new perspective of the power of the media more so than the power of good policy," he said. "Running for president did not necessarily cause people to say 'Oh, I know who you are.' But being on Fox News has. It's really embarrassing when you're running for president of the United States and nobody seems to have any clue."

The presidential campaign wasn't focused on policy, Huckabee said. The media focused on the horserace.

"Unfortunately, I do fear that one of the things that is hurtful to the country is that we put more of an emphasis on the game of getting to the presidency than what that person would do and what kind of experiences that person brings to the process."

Huckabee said education was never brought up during the campaign's 11 debates.

"I was really hoping the whole process of running for president would be about what could we do to solve the problems of America," he said. "Unfortunately, we spent most of our time talking about the very rare nuances and variations of opinion about the Iraq war."

He's uncertain if he'll run in the next presidential election in 2012.

"I'm not sure I'm in a place in my life, personally, that I can afford to take off two years and not have an income," he said.

CAS junior Annie Peck, membership coordinator for the NYU College Republicans, was impressed by Huckabee's neutral speech.

"It wasn't polarizing; it wasn't overly controversial or offensive or pushing any ideology," Peck said. "I liked how he just summed up his whole platform for running and then he opened it up about some of his views that are really important to him."