LITTLE ROCK—Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate wasn’t quite ready for prime time. Mike Huckabee the pundit is another matter.

The former Arkansas governor is turning to the medium that helped give his underfunded White House bid so much steam as he prepares for his new career as political commentator for the Fox News Channel.

Huckabee and the network announced this month that he was joining the Fox political team as a commentator on the presidential race in which he once was a player. And he’s said a show of his own is in the works as well.

It’s a fitting destination for a man who already became a regular presence on cable news and late-night comedy shows during his surprisingly strong run for the White House.

Huckabee announced his presidential bid during a Sunday morning chat with the late Tim Russert on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last year. He played bass guitar for Jay Leno and squared off with Stephen Colbert on air hockey.

As presumed Republican nominee Sen. John McCain neared the number of delegates necessary to head the GOP ticket, Huckabee even went on “Saturday Night Live” to parody his lingering on the political stage by uncomfortably lingering too long in NBC’s Studio 8A.

With his newfound TV gig, has Huckabee finally found his home, or just another springboard?

It’s hard to tell. Huckabee sounded more like a candidate when he explained his move to cable, with the ordained Baptist preacher promising to speak on behalf of those who connected with his bid.

“I hope to bring the unique perspective from ‘inside the dragon’s belly’ as well as to try and speak for the millions of hardworking middle-class Americans who really do feel that their voices are not being heard,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee’s foray into cable news wasn’t a surprise for longtime watchers of the former governor, including a political columnist who suggested that Huckabee all along was running for his own show rather than the White House.

Huckabee’s daughter Sarah, who is also director of his political action committee, called the idea absurd and noted the sacrifices Huckabee and others made for his unsuccessful bid.

Huckabee certainly isn’t the first politician to make the leap to cable news. After his failed bid for the presidency in 2004, fellow Arkansan and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark made the leap to television as a military analyst.

If Huckabee is angling for another White House bid in 2012 or 2016 — and isn’t planning on serving in any other elected office — television is his best route, said Jonathan S. Morris, an assistant professor of political science at East Carolina University.