Wading into the post-election debate over the future of the Republican Party, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee predicted that if Republicans opt for the "mushy middle," voters "won't rehire us."

The former 2008 White House hopeful participated in a wide-ranging, hour-long discussion with reporters Wednesday morning at the Republican Party's Capitol Hill Club in Washington to promote his new book, "Do The Right Thing", a campaign memoir that also offers prescriptions for how the GOP can regain its majority in the country.

Huckabee said that the party needed to figure out how to improve the livelihood of the "hard-working middle class" who "don't have confidence that Republicans will make it better." While the former presidential contender did not offer up specific initiatives to fix the economy, he said he felt "somewhat vindicated" for what he said about it during his bid for the GOP presidential nomination. Huckabee recalled an October 2007 Republican presidential debate in Dearborn, Mich., in which he decried high CEO pay, predicted a comeback for unions and said that when viewers heard the GOP candidates "talk about how great the economy is... they're going to probably reach for the dial."

Huckabee noted that at the time he had been "pilloried" by some Republicans and conservative pundits for his comments: "I certainly didn't read off the RNC talking points."

But Huckabee also said he disagreed with Republicans who are urging that the party downplay or shift away from issues like abortion, gun rights and opposition to gay marriage. Noting that anti-gay-marriage initiatives passed in states that Barack Obama carried, Huckabee declared, "For Republicans to get away from that would be insane." He also pointedly asserted that John McCain had never "addressed the issue" of gay marriage while campaigning in Florida, despite the fact that an anti-marriage ban passed easily there.

And while he was careful not to criticize the party's 2008 nominee directly, Huckabee did say he wished that McCain had opposed the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry that passed Congress in October in order to distinguish himself from Obama, who also supported the measure. "I think it could have turned the entire election," said Huckabee. "One of the defining moments could have been the bailout."

Huckabee defended his decision to continue campaigning for the Republican nomination even after McCain appeared to have an insurmountable delegate lead, arguing that "my remaining in the race kept him on the front pages." Once the conflict in the GOP contest was over, he said, press coverage of McCain dried up. Huckabee recalled that right after his own departure from the race, McCain made a trip to Appalachia to highlight poverty issues. "That really stirred it up, didn't it?" mused Huckabee.

The Arkansan said that he knew was never going to be chosen as the party's vice presidential nominee because "I never had any contact with the McCain campaign." When it was noted that there had been little support among GOP insiders for Huckabee to be offered that position, he replied that he had "always represented an insurgency to the Republican establishment."

Huckabee said that one of the reasons McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate was to address the concerns of the party's conservative base, adding that the post-election attention she received at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami was "a good thing" and that he expected her to be an important voice in the party going forward.

Asked if he was interested in seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nomination and whether he was taking any steps in that regard, Huckabee replied," I don't know whether I've got a political future or not." Pressed several times on the issue, Huckabee said it was "silly" to talk about the subject when the next president hasn't even been inaugurated, but eventually added, "I'm not ruling anything out in the future."

Huckabee did weigh in on the career prospects of a former fellow Arkansan, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. He said he thought Clinton would make "a good secretary of State" and added that he did not think her husband, Bill Clinton, who has devoted much of his post-presidency to international philanthropy, "would be in the way of her."

Like other recent observers, Huckabee wondered how wise it was for Obama to discuss the high-powered Cabinet post with Clinton after his campaign last summer spurned her and her supporters' interest in being his running mate. Joked Huckabee: "If you knock on a girl's door twice and don't take her to the dance, God help you."