Mike Huckabee signs books at Asheville Barnes & Noble

In another sign that North Carolina is shaping into a national political battleground, potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visited the Barnes & Noble at the Asheville Mall this evening, March 8, as part of a book tour.

A big crowd lined up to have the former Arkansas governor and current Fox News host sign copies of his latest work, “A Simple Government: Twelve Things We Really Need From Washington (and a Trillion That We Don’t!)”. According to his website, the book “sums up the twelve things we really need from Washington to get the country back on the right track.”

In 2008, Huckabee came in second to Arizona Sen. John McCain in the primary race to be the Republican candidate for president. A recent Gallop poll showed him to be in a statistical tie with other 2012 Republican hopefuls Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin.

At tonight’s hour-long event, Huckabee did not read from his book or address the crowd.

Photos by Jonathan Welch:

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About Jake Frankel
Jake Frankel is an award-winning journalist who enjoys covering a wide range of topics, from politics and government to business, education and entertainment.

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20 thoughts on “Mike Huckabee signs books at Asheville Barnes & Noble

  1. Stan Brocklin

    Snark all you want. The times they are a changin. And the Obama wing of the democrat party aint it! This is the time of the conservative. Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Nikki Haley, Michele Bachmann, etal are the wave of the future. November 2010 was just the start. Traditional Americans are taking their country back!

  2. Johnny

    Even though I essentially am repelled by Huckabee’s politics, I used to think that on a certain level he was a basically a good person and kept positive personal values.

    However, his “Kenya remarks” a week ago and other recent commentary has put the final nail in his coffin, with the predictable pandering racism to the uber-base he was trying to play to and/or stir up.

    He’d be easy as pie to beat in the general election, though, so if he gets the nomination (doubtful) then fine with me. Bring it.

  3. bill smith

    People like Huckabee (Palin, Gingrich, etc) court controversy because it is the only way for them to remain present in the media market, given that their party has little use for them. So they say something wacky and get the liberal press in a tizzy, which endears them to their base, and moves some books off the shelves!

  4. luther blissett

    He ain’t running. Too busy taking money from Fox News and the “traditional American” rubes who buy his books while he talks out of forty sides of his mouth, depending on who’s listening.

  5. Awesome headline is awesome:

    “Mike Huckabee signs books at Asheville Barnes & Noble”

    One-time presidential hopeful and governor Mike Huckabee was briefly detained in an Asheville, North Carolina Barnes & Noble this week following an incident which workers at the store described as “bizarre”.

    Huckabee, 56, was charged with criminal mischief following a call from workers at the Barnes & Noble that someone was in the store defacing books by signing them. According to police and eyewitness reports, Huckabee started near the front door by asking people if he could see their purchases and then pulled out a Sharpie and signed his name to the first page.

    “I thought it must be an impersonator,” said Con Servative, a Weaverville resident shopping in Asheville. “And then I started looking for the hidden cameras.”

    When asked by the store’s manager, Carl Winkle, to leave, Huckabee reportedly mumbled, “Well, OK, but I’ve got a book signing to start.”

    “He left at that point and I didn’t think any more of it until Susie came and told me someone was causing trouble in the religious fiction section. I got confused and went to the religious non-fiction section first – honestly, I don’t know why we have those separated – but I found him a few minutes later going through a stack of ‘Left Behind’ books,” said Winkle.

    “And that’s when I knew I had to call the police.”

    When police arrived, Huckabee had moved on to the music section, drawing mustaches in a biography of Paul McCartney and signing his name in several books of bass guitar lessons. Employees were unsure how or even if they could restrain him, stated the Asheville police PR person we talked to.

    “We are treating this very seriously. I mean, this is a man that believes he has a shot of being President and, honestly, that alone should tell us a lot about his state of mind.”

    Huckabee will appear in court on Monday.

  6. Ken Hanke

    Wonder if he would’ve signed my copy of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian?

  7. sharpleycladd

    There’s nothing traditional about Huckabee, Bachmann, Gingrich, et al., and they’re pretty anti-American to boot.

  8. bill smith

    I would like to announce that I am running for President. Abortion is immoral, and women should not wear shoes. I also have a book for sale.

  9. bill smith

    …after i sign books at city lights in Sylva, I will be signing lamp posts, police cars, and mailboxes with a mean streak sharpie form True blue.

  10. sharpleycladd

    Is it Huckabee who’s been married three times and dated women while his wife was sick, or is he the one who quit being governor halfway through his term to be on a reality show, or is he the one who was handing out checks from the tobacco industry on the floor of the U.S. House, or is he the one who campaigned against a multiple-amputee Vietnam veteran calling him unpatriotic? I get confused with all the American Values these Republicans ooze from every pore, you see.

  11. Jessica B.

    sharpleyclad says “There’s nothing traditional about Huckabee, Bachmann, Gingrich, et al., and they’re pretty anti-American to boot.”

    Why, of course they’re traditional, just like McCarthy and Cohn…

  12. Oh. Wow. Didn’t see this before – but “Gallop poll”?

    Seriously, team Xpress – stop using spell check and just send me all the copy. I’ll edit for you for a modest fee. Contract, even.

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