Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest has lifted the prospects of rival presidential candidates in France's Socialist Party, but they face a struggle to win over voters.

The arrest has sparked scrambling among Socialist Party power brokers at a time when President Nicolas Sarkozy's poor approval ratings have given the Socialists their best opportunity in years to win the presidency. But the party now finds itself without any obvious candidate.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62 years old, hadn't declared his intention to seek the Socialists' nomination, but he was widely expected to do so within weeks and was looked upon by party members as the savior of a party that has produced only one French president in the half-century history of France's Fifth Republic.

On Monday, party chiefs clung to the hope that he would still be able to represent them despite the sexual-assault case brought against the International Monetary Fund chief in New York.

Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, a Socialist lawmaker speaking at party headquarters in Paris, said reports on the case contained "many contradictions." He added: "We can't believe he's guilty."

Mr. Strauss-Kahn was arraigned Monday on charges of attempted rape, criminal sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment of a maid in the New York City hotel where he was staying. He was ordered held without bail. His lawyer said Mr. Strauss-Kahn plans to plead not guilty.

French Socialists missed the 1990s trend for left-of-center parties—such as the British Labour Party and Germany's Social Democrats—to adopt versions of the small-government, pro-market economics they had in the past opposed. Instead, a Socialist government in France in 2000 reduced the standard workweek to 35 hours from 39, making workers grateful but businesses uncompetitive.

Last month, the party announced a policy platform whose centerpiece was a program to create 300,000 jobs by raising certain taxes. It also proposed raising the minimum salary—something economists say would hurt French business, as labor costs in France have already overtaken those of neighbor Germany.

The three leading Socialists now vying for the party's nomination are all party insiders, who suffer from an awkward combination of age and inexperience.

Two are former partners: François Hollande and Ségolène Royal, who had four children together before separating in 2007. Mr. Hollande is the youngest at 56, but has never held a cabinet position, instead holding party posts over the years, including serving as secretary-general between 1997 and 2008.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Saturday he won't seek the Republican presidential nomination, choosing to stick with a lucrative career as a television and radio personality over a race that would be both costly and caustic.

"All the factors say go, but my heart says no," Huckabee, the winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses, said on his Fox News Channel show.

Huckabee's decision further muddies the GOP field as the Republican Party seeks a challenger for President Barack Obama.

A prominent social conservative, he ranks high in national popularity polls. And, had he run, he would have been a serious contender for the party nod with instant support among Christian evangelicals who dominate the Iowa caucuses and the early South Carolina primary.

Huckabee said the past few months have been times of deep personal reflection, even as he noted that polls put him "at or near the top" among likely Republican candidates.

He said money wasn't a problem and that his family was supportive of a run. He said he was confident of competing even in the Northeast and among less conservative members of the party.

But his heart wasn't in it.

"My answer is clear and firm," Huckabee said. "I will not seek the Republican nomination for president this year. I'm going to continue gladly doing what I do."

Even before the show, Huckabee's advisers said he was unlikely to run. Yet there was an element of doubt, as he apparently left even his closest advisers in the dark as to which way he would decide.

Huckabee only added to the tease with a series of interviews on Fox previewing his announcement, and with an email to advisers Friday night that said things were likely to get "crazier" after he revealed his plans.

Huckabee had told advisers he committed to Fox to reveal his decision first on his show. But the channel's Executive Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs Dianne Brandi said there was nothing in his contract prohibiting him from making his announcement wherever he chose.

By opting out of a bid, Huckabee leaves his network of support up for grabs in the critical early nominating states of Iowa and South Carolina where cultural conservatives hold much power in choosing the nominee.

Huckabee painted the decision as a spiritual one.

"Only when I was alone, in quiet and reflective moments, did I have not only clarity but an inexplicable inner peace," he said.

"Being president is a job that takes one to the limit of his or her human capacity. For me, to do it apart from the inner confidence that I was undertaking it without God's full blessing is simply unthinkable."

Huckabee, who has been out of public office since 2007, said he will continue helping others in campaigns for Congress, governorships and other positions who adhere to his ideals of commonsense, constitutional governance and civil discourse.

Had he chosen to run, Huckabee would have been forced to give up the lucrative media career he's enjoyed since his unsuccessful presidential bid four years ago. In addition to his TV show, Huckabee hosts a nationally syndicated radio program, gives paid speeches around the country and has even launched a series of animated videos for children on American history.

The talk show is the centerpiece of Huckabee's enterprises, which have made the one-time Baptist preacher from Hope, Ark., and 10-year governor a wealthy man with a $2.2 million beachfront home under construction in Florida. Huckabee, 55, and his wife moved their residency and voter registration to the state last year.

Making the announcement at the end of his hour-long program offered a glimpse of the celebrity life Huckabee wasn't willing to give up. He interviewed Mario Lopez of "Saved by the Bell" fame and jammed with Ted Nugent playing "Cat Scratch Fever" on the show.

His announcement was even followed up by a taped message from Donald Trump, the real estate mogul turned reality television star who has also been mulling a presidential run.

"Your ratings are terrific. You're making a lot of money. You're building a beautiful house in Florida. Good luck," Trump said. Others in the GOP race or considering it, like Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman, sent out statements praising Huckabee.

Advisers said Huckabee could have entered the race with a frontrunner status he didn't have as a former governor fresh out of office in 2008. But another Huckabee run would have brought renewed scrutiny over his support of some tax increases in Arkansas and his record on clemency -- including commuting the sentence of a man who later killed four Seattle-area police officers.

Huckabee is the latest Republican to opt out of running for the chance to challenge President Barack Obama in the general election. Several other Republicans hopefuls have bowed out as well, including Haley Barbour, Mike Pence and John Thune.

That raises questions about whether some GOP aspirants view Obama as too tough to beat.

It's unclear whether Huckabee's decision closes the door ultimately on his political future. While many say he still has a bright future with his personal media empire, turning that stardom into another presidential run in 2016 would be difficult

Ed Rollins, who chaired Huckabee's 2008 campaign and had been talking with fundraisers about a 2012 Huckabee bid, said it would be difficult to find another opportunity like this.

Standing near the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday, President Obama made his self-described "big policy speech" on immigration reform. But it didn't offer new proposals, didn't say legislation was coming and didn't explain how he would win over a skeptical GOP-led House.

If Obama's fourth immigration-related event in the past month was meant to appeal to the pivotal Latino voting bloc he needs to be re-elected, he should know that "Latino voters are very smart," said Gloria Montano Greene, Washington, D.C., director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

"A speech is not going to do it," she said. "They want to see action."

While Montano Greene nonetheless praised Obama for "keeping immigration in the forefront," others were skeptical that Tuesday's event was little more than a campaign stop. Obama did not vigorously push for immigration reform - a promise he made to Latino voters - even when Democrats had congressional majorities during his first two years.

A record 10 million Latinos voted in 2008 - two-thirds of them for Obama - out of more than 23 million registered Latino voters. Immigration reform topped the policy wish list of Latino voters in an April survey by impreMedia-Latino Decisions.

Obama's speech Tuesday in El Paso, Texas, was light on specifics but he attempted to reframe the immigration issue "as being about legalization" rather than the need to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, said Louis DeSipio, a professor of politics at UC Irvine and an expert on the Latino electorate.

Republican politicians in Congress and in states like California that share a border with Mexico often say they won't discuss immigration reform until the border is "secure." But few define what "secure" means.

Politico’s Alexander Burns trumpets President Obama’s newly minted reputation as a tough-on-national-security leader. In “President Obama dashes ‘Jimmy Carter’ label” he notes: “Obama’s overall approval numbers have rallied since May 1, when he announced Bin Laden’s death from the East Room of the White House.”

Burns also quotes former Bush administration official Pete Wehner, who “described Bin Laden’s death as a political ‘circuit breaker,’ writing in Commentary magazine: ‘The specter of Jimmy Carter was beginning to haunt the Obama administration. For now, at least, that narrative is stopped in its tracks.”

Yet, it is far from clear that getting bin Laden proves Obama has shed his inner Jimmy Carter. The chief goal of the Obama doctrine is to do the minimum to get by in the world — not to do nothing. Each of his decisions to send troops into harm’s way, including the Seal Team Six strike on bin Laden, reflects the president’s minimalist approach to the exercise of American power. I outlined each of these in a post at Family Security Matters.