It's true. Near-daily appearances on Fox News along with your very own 'pander to the wingnuts' half-hour show on weekends will certainly raise your profile with those who are devotees of Fox News, as Mike Huckabee now acknowledges out loud.
A Huckabee profile from Real Clear Politics (RCP) documents the Fox host's recent trip to Iowa to support Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst. According to reporter Scott Conroy, Huckabee was approached by several "Iowa Republican activists and volunteers" who told the Fox News host that they regularly watch his show.
Huckabee reportedly cited his platform at the network with helping put him in a "very good place to be" as he decides whether to throw his hat in the ring for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, explaining that it has helped increase his visibility and name recognition in Iowa because he has "been in these people's homes every week":
As a driver shuttled him between events, Huckabee told RealClearPolitics that his work on Fox has put him in a "very good place to be" politically as a self-imposed decision date looms in the early spring of next year.
"When I came up here eight years ago, nobody knew who I was," he said. "I had to spell my name. They didn't recognize me, and that was true all over the country. And now I come back, and I've been in these people's homes every week."
Well, howdy do, there! What a magnificent statement of the obvious. From John Kasich to Sarah Palin, the one thing Fox News knows how to do well is groom more wingnuts and give them plenty of air time to spew onto viewers' living room television sets. It isn't just Huckabee. Ben Carson, John Bolton, Scott Brown and Rick Santorum were also beneficiaries of Ailes' largesse.
But hey! Fox News is 'fair and balanced,' right?