There was one young lady from the University of Iowa who was at the first book stop in Davenport interviewing us and others and then Mike at the media event he held at the end of each signing. She was such a sweetheart (an absolute doll - polite, mature, respectful), and since we spent a lot of time together at a few of the other stops, we Team Huck members had the opportunity to talk with her a great deal and enjoyed discussing the tour and Mike. She had chosen Mike to write a paper on for a project and admitted that as a registered Democrat, when she first started the project she didn't have a very high opinion of him. By the time we had reached the stop on the UI campus, she not only had changed her mind, but wanted to have her picture taken with him and told us and him that she would vote for him. It was fun to see the progression take place and see what many of us here have said many times; once people meet Mike, hear him talk and see who he really is versus what the media portrays him as, people can't help but like him and will eventually end up supporting him. We offered her any help we could give her with her project and she is going to send us a copy of her final report. Can't wait to read it!

In Eastern Iowa, Mike Huckabee signs books, stays mum about 2012 presidential intentions

Posted on 04 March 2011

A group of supporters greets Mike Huckabee at a Davenport Sam's Club - a stop on his book signing tour. Speculation continues about whether and when Huckabee will announce a bid for the 2012 presidency. Photo by McKinley Kemp/Special to IowaWatch

By KEELY KEMP
IowaWatch Staff Writer

A growing queue snaked through the aisles of the Davenport Sam’s Club on Sunday, as a group of Iowans awaited the arrival of Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor. Each arriving supporter was handed a copy of Huckabee’s new book, “A Simple Government.”

Some mingled, discussing the author’s policies, character, his Fox News show or even the way he smiled. But they soon grew restless, and the chanting began: “Huckabee 2012! Huckabee 2012!”

Within minutes, an enormous tour bus, painted to look like his book’s understated cover, pulled up to the store’s entryway. The man of the hour had arrived.

The door of the bus whooshed open and out poured Huckabee and his entourage. His supporters gathered around, cheering and carrying signs with messages like “America needs Huckabee 2012” or “Huckabee 2012, Chuck Norris Approved.”

Was this just part of a book tour, or a campaign stop for the man who won Iowa, but lost the 2008 Republican nomination for president?

Speculation about Huckabee’s presidential ambitions intensified on Wednesday when Fox News kept him on

its payroll, but suspended former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, two of his fellow contributors who are contemplating runs at the presidency.

By Thursday, CNN was asking Santorum why he thought he got the hook, while Huckabee got to stay. “I don’t know why Fox differentiated, and they didn’t talk to me about it,” Santorum said. On the surface, the difference between Huckabee’s status and that of Santorum and Gingrich is gray. Just last week, Huckabee confidently said he was “seriously and genuinely contemplating a run.

And, this week, during his swing through Iowa, Huckabee designed this book tour as a “pre-campaign,” to see how his message resonates with voters throughout more cities in the heartland. The strategy, he said, will help him decide whether to announce his candidacy.

Regardless of that decision, the massive turnout at his book tour stops on Sunday and Monday showed that he still holds the hearts of many Iowa conservatives.

Iowans were not shy about asking him to throw his hat into the ring. But Huckabee, careful not to tip his hand, just smiled and thanked those who encouraged his bid.

Huckabee’s supporters said they admired his honesty, down-to-earth mentality and his good-natured character.

Mike Huckabee signs a book at his stop at the Old Capitol Mall in Iowa City. Photo by McKinley Kemp/Special to IowaWatch

“He’s an honest man, tells it like it is,” said Charles Ponce, a retired Air Force member who was left his Tulsa, Okla. home to care for his elderly mother in Davenport.

“He wants to do what is right for the country,” he added.

Huckabee greeted each supporter personally, like when he asked a coatless college-aged supporter where his jacket was. When the man motioned to a young woman, who was holding it, Huckabee, looking relieved said, “I was going to have to let you borrow one.”

“I wish [campaigning] meant more and more of visiting with people and listening to their concerns and focusing on issues and what you would do if elected,” Huckabee said in a press conference after the Davenport signing.

His supporters praised that seeming genuineness.

“He was civil before civil became a term used,” said Janelle Stephens, a Huck PAC volunteer, during the Iowa City stop. “I see kindness in his brown eyes and I place a premium in kindness.”

As Huckabee signed the books in front of him, Stephens, who looked to be in her 60s, gazed at him with the unyielding admiration of a love-drunk teenage girl.

“I think he is looking for a sign,” she said. “When God tells you it’s time to run, we’re behind you.”

And how has the pre-campaign progressed thus far? David Huckabee, like his former-governor father, put the answer simply.

“So far so good,” he said.

(Keely Kemp is an IowaWatch staff writer and a junior at the University of Iowa majoring in in Journalism and Spanish.)

Mike Huckabee found an hour's solace from the pressures of politics as a tour bus with his picture on the side rolled into the parking lot of Watermark Books on Tuesday evening.

While people in the rest of the country buzzed about his gaffe on New York talk radio just a day before, Huckabee found nothing but support, warm handshakes and smiles.

No one mentioned Huckabee's comment on WOR radio. He'd said President Obama's growing up in Kenya shaped his worldview and policies. Obama didn't visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.

After he signed books at Watermark, the former Arkansas governor's political action committee released this statement just after 8:30 p.m.:
"I simply misspoke when I alluded to President Obama growing up in 'Kenya' and meant to say Indonesia," where Obama lived from ages 5-10, the statement read.

Huckabee told the Des Moines Register that the 41-city book tour is aimed as much at helping him decide whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination a second time as it is at promoting his new release.

A poll released Tuesday of 11 Southern states by Winthrop University of Rock Hill, S.C., showed Huckabee leading a field of prospective Republican candidates.

The 155 people who filed through the east Wichita bookstore had lined up outside before he arrived, clutched his book and held him in admiration.
Huckabee stopped David Kinnan and his wife, Angela, in the fast-moving line inside the bookstore to meet the Derby couple's four children, ages 2 to 8.

"The last election we voted for him — my wife and I both," Kinnan, 34, said. "He has very realistic politics, and goals we could achieve as a country. With the death (tax) and fair tax. And he seems to get along with everybody."

Andrea Downs, 40, of Andover, came to see Huckabee, after attending Sarah Palin's appearance in November. Palin signed books in Andover.
"I like to see those who inspire me," Downs said.

Which would she prefer to see run for president?

"No comment," Downs said, smiling.

There's no choice yet. Neither has announced plans to seek the White House in 2012.

Huckabee spent about 10 seconds signing each book but shook hands and often offered a "God bless you" to folks in line.

Huckabee stopped David Austin of Bel Aire, who worked for Dick Kelsey's congressional campaign last year. Kelsey stepped out of the race after his wife was diagnosed with cancer.

"He asked about Dick's wife, and showed he's human and a caring person," Austin, 38, said.

Huckabee chuckled as he signed Jeremy Browning's red-and-white shirt. It carried the name of Huckabee's book "A Simple Christmas," which brought him to Watermark little more than a year ago.

"I bought it online after he was here in 2009," Browning, 20, said. "It's a great way to show my support for Mike Huckabee. And it's gotten a little attention tonight."

You can read my Mike Huckabee has Successful Second Swing through Texas post here:

http://ilikemikehuckabee2012.blogspot.c ... econd.html

Thank you Debbie for placing some of my photographs here as well as on your web site. I am in awe of your professional computer skills and talents and appreciate the excellent reporting you are giving to Mike's activities. He is blessed to have you and so many others that are building up his base of supporters through media outlets. Like everyone here at HA, I am now patiently waiting for Mike's decision this summer.

Huckabee Book Back on NYT List After Newsmax Article


Friday, 18 Mar 2011 02:14 PM
By Chris Gonsalves

The New York Times upgraded the classification of Mike Huckabee’s new book Friday, one day after Newsmax detailed complaints that the paper was politicizing its best-sellers rankings to the detriment of Fox News contributors.


Mike Huckabee Huckabee’s new best-seller “Simple Government” will move from the Times’ “Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous” list to its more popular and influential “Non-fiction” best-sellers list, Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha tells Newsmax.

Full article here-
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/news ... /id/389967