For Huckabee, book tour echoes pace of campaign
Former presidential candidate, pastor celebrates ‘A Simple Christmas’

BY LILLIE-BETH BRINKMAN Comments 2
Published: November 10, 2009

When 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee rolls into town today to promote his newest book, "A Simple Christmas,” it will be hard to miss the bus that will serve as his home for the three-week book tour of 64 cities in 22 states.

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Huckabee to sign books

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is in Oklahoma today for two book signings for his new book, "A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit.”

• When: His first signing will be from 5 to 6 p.m. at Borders, 8015 S Yale in Tulsa. He then will be in Edmond from 8 to 9 p.m. at Best of Books at Kickingbird Square, 1313 E Danforth Road.

• Information: For more information about his book and tour, go to www.mikehuckabee.com.

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The bus carrying Huckabee and his team, which looks like a billboard for his book, was expected to arrive in Oklahoma today for book signings in Tulsa and Edmond after stops Monday in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri. The day before, Huckabee was in Cincinnati and in three cities in Iowa.

The pace of the trip is similar only in intensity to the presidential campaign in which the former Arkansas governor lost the nomination to John McCain. Huckabee likes promoting the positive message of his book about Christmas, which is more personal than political.

"When you’re campaigning, you spend so much of your time defending against all sorts of political attacks that are coming from opponents,” he said in a phone interview Monday on the road.

On this tour, Huckabee, 54, who was a Baptist preacher before going into politics in the early 1990s, said he is happy to talk about the book that tells many of his life’s stories against the backdrop of faith and Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, one he notes is messier than the sanitized, idyllic version in Christmas pageants everywhere.

"God showed up. That’s the whole miracle of Christmas. In the most humble, humiliating of circumstances, He showed up,” Huckabee said.

Among his favorite parts of the book is the chapter called "Sacrifice,” in which he relays how his parents made several sacrifices to give him his heart’s desire — a guitar — one Christmas. He still plays the bass guitar, including as a member of the Fox house band during the musical segment of his Fox News show, "Huckabee.”

Huckabee said people relate well to the chapter called "Crisis,” about his wife Janet’s cancer diagnosis in 1975, when they were newlyweds.

"My goal was to weave the stories into such a way that people could put their own name into the story and make it work for them,” he said.