LONDONDERRY, N.H. (Jan. 5) — An event for local Londonderry charities Saturday morning turned into a rock concert and media frenzy when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) took the stage.
But in an unusual twist, Huckabee didn’t campaign for president. He campaigned for Chuck Norris.
“I really appreciate people coming out to see Chuck Norris, because I know you’re not all here to see me,” he joked.
Huckabee praised Kickstart, a charity founded by Norris, who is famous for his kicks in martial-arts action movies. And Norris explained the charity’s purpose: “I started an organization that teaches moral behavior in kids through martial arts.”
The real star of this event?
“Chuck Norris is a real tough guy. He doesn’t wear a shirt,” Huckabee said. “He looks at the threads, and they jump on his body.
Charities like St. Jude’s Food Parish and Moore-Mart Veterans Helping, were seemingly overlooked by the audience in anticipation of Huckabee.
Not that Paul Moore, the founder of Moore-Mart, seemed to mind. Moore, whose charity collects money and supplies for soldiers stationed in Iraq, was happy for the extra attention.
“It helps heighten the awareness of our service men and women,” Moore said. “If we had had this event without Mike Huckabee we wouldn’t have the news media, and we wouldn’t have probably a third of the people that are here.”
(Larissa Padden, a magazine-newspaper-online graduate student, is covering the New Hampshire primaries for the Utica Observer-Dispatch.)
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