The first votes to be cast in 2012 will come in the Iowa caucus, and while it may not produce a lot of delegates, everyone wants that big mojo coming out of the gate. So it’s no surprise that the contenders would like to receive the endorsement of 2008 winner Mike Huckabee. Unfortunately for Mitt, Newt, Herman and company, it looks like a case of, as we say in New York… fuggedaboutit.

With Iowa’s Republican presidential caucus up for grabs, all eyes have been on Mike Huckabee, the contest’s 2008 GOP winner whose potential endorsement in the race would surely be a game changer for any of the aspiring presidential hopefuls.

But Huckabee is not going to play the role of kingmaker—at least not right now. In an interview with Yahoo News, the former Arkansas governor says he won’t formally endorse a Republican candidate before January’s Iowa caucuses—and he’s likely to stay neutral throughout the primaries.

“I really doubt I will endorse anyone in the primary process,” Huckabee told Yahoo News. “I’m still holding the right to do that, but I don’t see at this point a reason it makes a whole lot of sense for me.”

It would certainly provide a certain amount of amusement to turn this into yet another guessing game and try to read more into this than is offered. Is Huck giving Down Twinkles to the entire field? Paying back some old grudges with interest? Still thinking of jumping in himself during a brokered convention?

It doesn’t sound like it. The much more mundane, boring answer is that Mike falls into the same category as a lot of other Americans in each and every poll. He just hasn’t made up his mind.

“If the election were held today, I’d struggle to choose which candidate I’d mark the ballot for,” he told Yahoo News, adding that many of his friends and former supporters also remain undecided in the race.

He also mentions his position as a Fox News broadcast personality, saying that he’d wind up having a bunch of candidates who, “hate my guts” showing up on the air with him for the next several months. I suppose I can’t blame him for that. But it seems like Huck doesn’t really benefit very much from playing Kingmaker at this point anyway, so if he’s not particularly moved by one of the candidates over the other, why bother? I have no doubt he will get behind the eventual nominee and give them plenty of air time to make their case against Obama.