Mike Huckabee in CR

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's big 'ol book-promoting bus tour rolled into Cedar Rapids around noon today. The man who won the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses, and just might again if he runs, strode into Barnes & Noble to do some book-signing and handshaking.

Huckabee's big bus, manned by young staffers in tour shirts that resemble NASCAR entries with sponsor patches, including Fox News, illustrates how this is not exactly the same humble pol who snuck into Iowa in 2006 with low chances and little fanfare. Now he's cruising in like a front-runner, a poll-topper, a contender. One downside, the element of surprise is no longer in his toolbox.

He spent about 30 minutes or so signing books for a healthy line of people. I did not count, but a decent turnout for a Monday.  Huckabee scrawled his mark and made polite conversation. A few people said they hope he runs, but I didn't see anyone beg him on bended knee. This is Iowa. The candidates do the begging.

Photos were snapped, including one where Huckabee posed with a family that included eight kids. That's almost a whole precinct, if only they were all old enought to vote.

A store employee politely told journos that company policy banned us from talking to customers inside the store. I didn't chase anyone into the parking lot for live reaction, but I got the impression from most that they like him, they really like him.

Afterward, we did get a chance to ask Huckabee a few questions.

How should your supporters view your reluctance to jump into the race now?

“They should not read anything into it other than I'm trying to be smarter, and not be stupid enough to go out there and try to sustain a campaign for an unnecessarily long period of time. If a person is a boxer, and you have a choice of a 15-round fight or a 10-round fight, I think most people would say 10 rounds makes more sense. Because it's tough to stay on your feet for 15.”

You were an unknown underdog with nothing to lose last time, now you havethe pressure of being rseen as a front-runner, how do you deal with that?

“To be honest with you, that underdog status is greatly overrated. What it means is you start out, you're lucky to have six people at a Pizza Ranch at small towns up in Northwest Iowa. I think it is much better to have a support level that can generate the funding so you could have a stronger campaign from the beginning. Because it was tough when nobody was paying attention.

“In the past in my political life over 20 years I've been an underdog and one nobody thought had a chance. Then I've been an incumbent, started out as the front-runner. To be honest with you, it's a lot more fun being the front-runner."

There's speculation that some candidates focusing on fiscal issues more than social issues might skip or de-emphasize Iowa. What do you make of that?

“One of the mistakes that candidates may be making would be forgetting that even if they don't think they can win Iowa, every political reporter in the country will be in Iowa. So if they want to get their message out, nationally as well as in the state, People are going to be listening to what you say here. They may not vote for them here, but they'll be listening to what they say here, and it will be reported everywhere."

Huckabee pointed to Rudy Giuliani's 2008 run as an example:

“He went to Florida. But nobody was paying attention to Florida until Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina were over. By then it was too late.”

If Newt Gingrich gets in, does that impact your decision?

“I won't make a decision based on who gets in or gets out. Newt is a good friend of mine and I like him a lot. He's a person of extraordinary ideas, there's just very few people who generate more ideas than Newt does. I think he would be great to have in it. The other thing I'm convinced of Newt is he won't try to make other candidates look bad, he'll focus on what he stands for."

I have no idea whether Huckabee will run. His signals have been mixed. But can he really resist the urge when early polls show that he's got a fairly good chance of winning the nomination? I can't remember anyone else walking away from those kind of numbers.

Writing books and hosting a TV show are pretty good gigs. And he's got a bus. I'm betting it will be converted from a book tour ride to presidential campaign bus by summer.