Good for Mike Huckabee … assuming he sticks to his guns if the rest of the Republican field doesn’t follow suit.  The runner-up in the 2008 sweepstakes says he won’t let the media pressure him into an early declaration, and that means he won’t be on the dais if the spring debates come to fruition:

The former Arkansas governor and possible candidate who’s been leading the GOP pack in early polls has already said he won’t decide on a run until the summer. That timeline, he said, means he won’t partake in the debates already scheduled for this spring.

“I don’t want to get suckered into taking on the schedule because it’s what the media wants us to do,” Huckabee said Friday during a talk at The King’s College in New York. The remarks were reported Sunday by The Christian Post.

POLITICO and NBC News are co-hosting a spring debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in California. Fox News and the South Carolina GOP are planning a debate in May.

The media wants to start its focus on 2012 as early as possible for the obvious reason — it means bigger ratings.  The unusual combination of wide-open primaries in both parties, Bush fatigue, and the economic stall that later turned into a crash made for a media feast in 2007 and 2008.  Who can blame the media for trying to kick-start the 2012 cycle as early as possible?  Certainly not Barack Obama, who wants to use it to start driving donations to his campaign in March.

That’s certainly one good reason for Republican presidential contenders to hold their powder for a while, but another is that candidates need to spend more time with voters in the various battleground areas than on television.  They certainly don’t need to start submitting to the silly game-show format we use for presidential “debates” that produce more zingers and goofy anecdotes than serious policy discussions.  One cannot explain policies on entitlement reform in a two-minute soundbite, no matter how adept a speaker a candidate might be, much less a 30-second rebuttal.

Thanks to the format and the early start for Republican candidates, the outcome with the most impact will be that Republicans will produce tons of ad material … for the Obama campaign.  Meanwhile, Republicans will have little opportunity for the same, since so far it appears that Obama won’t face any challenge for his renomination.

Republicans should all eschew these early debates, and wait until at least Labor Day to have any policy discussions.  When they do, they should seriously rethink the debate format and find one that communicates seriously with the public, rather than reward the best at stand-up comedy.