I Heart Huckabee

We got a chance to “meet” former Governor Mike Huckabee recently. He was our choice for the Republican presidential nominee, but alas were forced to vote for another guy when Huckabeedropped out of the race. We (I should actually say “I”) jumped at the chance to see him when I found out he’d be in Montgomery to help celebrate Faith Radio’s 25th anniversary.

Tickets were expensive, but we were willing to pay. I naively thought though that if we could reserve a whole table that the price per ticket for everyone at the table would be less expensive. I quickly got a lesson in fund raising. We did not reserve a whole table.

You know me and my penchant for meeting political figures and for getting to the front of the show and for being first so I should have been first in line when the doors opened, running to the first open table (closest to the stage of course) for peons who only bought individual tickets. Well, I know my husband and he doesn’t care for that as much as I do so I decided to just chill and see what the night brought us. It brought us two seats at the table the very farthest away from the stage. It was then that I realized my goal of shaking Huckabee’s hand was probably not going to be realized this night.

I’m not really complaining though. We sat next to wonderful people and ate great food. We watched Huckabee play his bass with a trio of local boys who are awesome violinists/guitarists/masters at all stringed instruments. To my delight he played “Sweet Home Alabama” and “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”. Could it have been any better? Well, maybe, if Florida had some rowdy song like that.

We were sitting so far back the guys are just washes of light on my camera. Huckabee’s on the far right. I swear that’s him.

Huckabee’s speech was great. Not political at all, except when he talked about the times during his campaign when people in airports would swear they recognized him. They would end up calling him Bob Dole or Mitt Romney. His speech centered around his career in radio and about how radio plays such an important part in getting messages of hope and faith out to vast audiences.

The best part of the night was when the emcee let everyone know Huckabee would graciously be sticking around for a short while to sign copies of his book, conveniently for sale out front. This is when the competitive spirit in me awoke. I’m sure you can guess that we did indeed end up shaking the man’s hand. Not only that, we got our picture taken with him.

 Holy cow, I look like an idiot who’s never met a political figure in her life! Please laugh with me (not at me because I’m chuckling as loud as you are, and that’s not my bra, by the way, it’s a tank worn to prevent that sort of thing from happening). I looked the same in my picture with Sarah Palin and in my picture with Donald Rumsfeld’s wife. I’ve got to get this goofy grin thing under control, because when I finally meet George Bush I want to actually look composed and with it.

So, add another notch to my political belt. If Du had his way we’d already be in politics. I keep telling him though he’s too honest.