Huckabee's Income Streams May Be Seen as Unpresidential

While weighing a decision to enter the 2016 presidential field, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has pursued some "highly unconventional income streams" to earn money, The New York Times reports.

Huckabee, who has logged plenty of hours in the spotlight as a preacher, a politician and a host on Fox News, has marketed a dietary supplement purported to be a treatment for diabetes — something the American Diabetes Association has warned is ineffective — and sold ads on email commentaries sent to thousands of his supporters, according to the Times.

"He is haunted by his first presidential try in 2008, when he won the Iowa caucus on a populist wave, but eventually sputtered out largely because of money shortages," the Times reports.

Filling campaign coffers in a national race has proven difficult for Huckabee in the past, who, according to the Daily Beast, in his 2008 bid for the White House raised just more than $16 million, with less than $55,000 coming from political action committees.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP’s nominee, raised some $12.7 million just in the first quarter of 2007.

A Huckabee spokeswoman told the Times that Huckabee has cut ties with the diabetes cure "suggesting concerns that the unusual endorsements may appear unpresidential."

One ad arriving in email inboxes of Huckabee supporters has claimed a miracle cure for cancer, while another promoted food survival kits.

Erick Erickson, founder of the blog Red State, has called the ads "a plague on conservatives."

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