Steve King Won't Run for President

No King for Prez: Western Iowa Congressman Steve King told me last year, a few times, he was thinking about running for president in 2012. But this weekend, he told me it doesn't look like that will happen. King said two things were missing for his presidential run: "a calling and a groundswell", he told me. Instead, he said he will be looking at the other possible Republican presidential candidates. He said he won't endorse until at least after the Republican Party of Iowa's straw poll in August. Isn't it a given King will endorse his neighbor to the north, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann? King told me, no. He said, "She's a great friend. On the issues, we go across the board. We are instinctively together. But (former Colorado Congressman) Tom Tancredo has that same type of relationship. History will show I didn't endorse Tom Tancredo when he ran for president." Tancredo ran in 2008. King (who I thought looks like Tancredo) instead endorsed Fred Thompson. That one didn't turn out so well. By the way, I was trying to figure out exactly how many presidential candidates there were at King's first-ever Conservative Principles Conference Saturday in downtown Des Moines. Tom Beaumont wrote a preview story for the Des Moines Register saying there would be 4 (this will be one of his last stories for the paper as he leaves for the Associated Press). His later story counted 5 possible candidates (he added former UN Ambassador John Bolton). I had gone with 5, but wasn't sure what to do with South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, who King's event considered the headliner of the evening event. I asked King whether to call DeMint a "possible candidate". King said DeMint made it "pretty clear he's not coming as a candidate." So, I'm sticking with 5 possible candidates for the day. That was plenty to try to fit into one tv story.