Mike Huckabee Meets and Greets with Workers from Iowa Spinners

While I had been away from my blog there was a lot I missed posting. My head has rather been spinning on whether or not I should post what I had missed posting. Then I decided to take Mike Huckabee's advice from the Clinton County Lincoln Day Dinner. I won't be looking back and trying to oversteer. I will just look ahead and post what's current with Mike Huckabee. After all, I figured y'all had a chance to check out Mike Huckabee's website at www.mikehuckabee.com and other blogs.
I found this great article from Monday. Mike Huckabee meeted and greeted with workers from the Iowa Spinners, a metal fab plant in Cedar Falls Iowa. Here are a few snippets from article in The New York Times.

• On the Road: Huckabee in Iowa

• By Michael Luo
• Mike Huckabee, wearing a tie at front, on a tour of a metal fabrication company’s plant in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (Photo: Eric Thayer for The New York Times)
• 
  
• Tagging along with Mike Huckabee over the course of two days last week as he stumped through eastern Iowa, an observation came to mind time and again about how much he still remained a small-town Baptist pastor.

This is what I like about Mike Huckabee. He keeps it real and doesn't get a big head about his recent upsurge.

• I have mostly followed Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign this year, with occasional diversions to cover other leading Republicans and even some of the Democrats. This is the first time I saw Mr. Huckabee, who is emerging as arguably Mr. Romney’s main competition in the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, on the stump.
• Their campaigns are a study in contrasts. Mr. Romney may be akin to the mega-church pastor — the Rev. Joel Osteen, who is similarly dentally blessed and perfectly-coiffed for television. He travels with something of an entourage; his events are well organized; his campaign is rigid about media availability.

• Greeting His Flock
• 
  
• Arriving inside the lobby of Iowa Spinners, a metal fabrication company in Cedar Falls, Mr. Huckabee found a sizable contingent of local and national press waiting for him.

• Strolling to the factory floor, Mr. Huckabee met Janet Ekstrom, the company’s chief financial officer, who happened to be celebrating a birthday that day. Mr. Huckabee asked if she had ever had a gaggle of press sing happy birthday for her. When she said she hadn’t, he led us in an off-key rendition.
• He would repeat the performance later at Doughy Joey’s Peetza Joynt in Waterloo, where in his rounds he discovered once again that it was a woman’s birthday. And once again he had the press corps sing, this time to Jolene Tagtow, 49, who served on the county’s Republican Party central committee.

I think this is super sweet that he would take time to sing happy birthday to people he had never met before.

• Addressing Theology
• Mr. Huckabee peppered his tour of the metal plant with jokes, even about the safety goggles. (Photo: Eric Thayer for The New York Times)

Just a side note, I would prefer his tie be green/white striped ;).

• At the close of the tour of the Iowa Spinners plant, Mr. Huckabee was supposed to answer questions from employees and other potential caucus-goers, but he found a mostly empty room, with just the members of the press and a few others. So he answered a few questions from reporters. Then, Glenda Gehrkey, of Evansdale, who had come to meet Mr. Huckabee, piped up with an urgent question for him.
• She was dismayed, she said, that many Christian conservatives in Iowa were “thinking about the values issues and forgetting about the creator behind the values issues.”

That is a great point.

• She wondered whether, because of his Mormon faith, Mr. Romney’s prayers would “even get through.”
• Recognizing that the question was deeply fraught, especially with the national press looking on, Mr. Huckabee sidestepped it, saying he would leave Mr. Romney to explain his beliefs. But he offered this: “I don’t want to speak for any other candidate or denigrate them at all. My views are what they are. I don’t think I’ve ever hidden where they come from.”

While y'all know I don't agree with Mitty's religious beliefs I think Mike handled this just perfect. It is not up to Mike Huckabee to answer about Mitt Romney and his religion. It is up to Mitt Romney to answer that.

• Preaching With Humor
• 
  
• Good preachers know that wielding humor adeptly is important for keeping the attention of those in the pews. Sometimes they use a humorous anecdote to illustrate a point; other times simply to liven things up. Jokes are invariably peppered throughout Mr. Huckabee’s speeches, along with spiritual references.

Talking about using cheap lava soap when growing up;

• “I was in college before I found out it’s not supposed to hurt when you shower,” he said. “You know, today people pay 150 bucks for an exfoliation. Fifty cents will give you a bar of lava.”

I really like this. On the surface it doesn't look like much. But when ya scratch the surface ya see the deeper point. The deeper point? It's this. He realizes about budgets. Why spend big bucks on something when ya can get the same thing for so much less? Mike Huckabee understands that. Now think about it. Who would you rather have taking hold of your tax money, the one who spends $150 for an exfoliation (Mitt Romney) or the one who spends $0.50 for lava soap(Mike Huckabee)? While this is symbolic, it shows that Mike Huckabee would budget to get the most bang for your buck. Oh no, I just put too much thought into something and now I need to scrub my brain with lava soap.

• He turned to a young woman wearing a T-shirt from a global warming organization, seated next to someone dressed as a snowman.
• “Do I get to speak to the snowman?” Mr. Huckabee said.
• “The snowman doesn’t speak English,” the woman said. “That’s why I am translating for him.”
• “Ohhh, what does the snowman speak?” Mr. Huckabee said. “Is there a snow language?”

This just shows that Mike Huckabee can keep his cool, when confronted. Again, something this country needs when our leader is to travel abroad and deal with crazy dictators and his supporters. (Yeah I know I said "his." But actually that is proper English when not talking about a specific person.)

• His answer, of course, turned out to be quite serious. He talked about his support for a carbon cap-and-trade system and where he got his passion for the issue.
• “For me, it’s a spiritual issue,” he said. “It’s not just politics. I believe that God is the creator of the earth. He owns it. I’m his guest. It’s not mine. I have a responsibility to take good care of it.”

Again, proof that Mike Huckabee looks into an issue, not just what the politics of the day is. Along with that, he soesn't just talk the talk on the religious issues, he walks it too and gives credit too God, for everything.

• The joke of the night came when a young man asked him whether he supported embarking on a manned mission to Mars. After a lengthy explanation about the scientific leaps that have come from the space program, he said he would probably consult with scientists to discuss whether they would derive the most benefit from a manned trip to Mars.
• But he added this quip: “If we do a manned space trip to Mars, we’ve already got the first astronaut lined up. Dennis Kucinich is ready to go!

Tee-hee!

• Mr. Huckabee at a campaign stop in Vinton, Iowa. (Photo: Eric Thayer for The New York Times)

Please read the rest of the story here.