Huckabee tailors message for N.H.

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff

LONDONDERRY, N.H. -- Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses largely by appealing to evangelical Christians with a message of preserving traditional values. But in New Hampshire, where there are fewer social conservatives and more libertarian-leaning conservatives, Huckabee has retailored his message.

In Iowa, Huckabee regularly told a long story about the time his son put a cup of salt in a cake because he didn't understand what "dash" meant and so made up his own definition for the word. His point was that it is a "disaster" when people make up new definitions for things -- like allowing gay couples to get married.

But in his first two days of appearances in New Hampshire, Huckabee hasn't told the salty cake story. Instead of emphasizing cultural issues, he is instead talking to voters about individual liberty and the need to avoid big government solutions to problems.

"Your state motto 'Live Free or Die' really exemplifies the very heart of America," Huckabee said.

Huckabee unveiled his new approach in a college gymnasium in Henniker Friday at his first post-Iowa rally in New Hampshire.

America's founding fathers, he said, wanted to "empower people at the most local level" and have "strong states, not an overly strong central government because the danger of that is that whoever gets control of that government has too much power" – both themes that he rarely raised in Iowa.

And at his second post-Iowa rally today, which doubled as a fund-raiser for a Londonderry food bank and a group that sends care packages to soldiers in Iraq, Huckabee called for everyone to donate 10 percent of their incomes to local community and church charities, saying that such a tithe would be enough to end government welfare.

"I dream of the day when we are doing such an efficient and effective job of taking care of our families and our neighbors that the government can do what it does best -- and that's protect us, not have to provide for us," he said.

Huckabee, who is traveling the state with action movie star Chuck Norris, is also spending more time in New Hampshire talking about thanking military veterans for their service.

In Iowa, he often told the story about an Arkansas teacher who taught her students that they owed their education to military veterans. Today, Huckabee told the story again, but expanded it to talk about how a Vietnam veteran was moved to tears by the teacher's lesson because no one had thanked him when he came back from fighting in Indochina.

Huckabee supporter Mark Foster of Auburn, who attended the Londonderry event, said that while he agrees with Huckabee's positions against abortion and gay rights, it doesn't bother him that Huckabee is putting less emphasis on social issues and more emphasis on individual freedom and veterans in the Granite State.

"I think like any good public speaker, he's going to address his remarks to the audience," Foster said. "He can't hit every single issue when he has limited time."