The startling whiz of propeller jets overwhelmed me—I was a stranger in a strange hangar provided by Preferred Jet Carrier of Kennesaw, Ga.

I finally accepted my Kennesaw setting. Kennesaw: the city that requires all of its homeowners to own guns. Kennesaw: part of what Cobb County GOP Chairman Scott Johnson called “the center of the Republican universe.”

And Johnson’s exaltation of Cobb County makes it a perfect host for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist pastor.

And while he sang many a classic conservative rallying cry like, “It shows an extraordinary level of naiveté to suggest that…the Islamic jihadists will leave us alone if we just leave them alone,” he still delivered jokes with calculated punch lines.

The Arkansas native quipped: “I was on an airplane not too many years ago, and a guy said he had a joke about politicians. And I said, ‘I’m a politician.’ The guy responded, ‘That’s alright, son, I’ll tell it real slow.’”

Every joke was laughed at—most pregnant pauses were responded to with ovation. But even I, a metropolitan, Chai tea-sipping, Obama-idolizing, consistent and persistent centrist, found warmth in Huckabee’s message. For once, a Republican was spinning his party’s classic wedge issues in a kinder, albeit essentially similar way: He spoke more about life than against abortion, more about family than against gay rights, more about building up America than tearing Democrats down.

Huckabee was conservative with a populistic compassion: “We have a disease-focused culture now. An insurance company will pay $30,000 for foot amputation if you’re a diabetic, but it won’t pay for a $150 visit to a podiatrist to prevent the situation in the first place.”

He was humble: “I’m the first male in my entire family lineage to even graduate high school.”

But is he electable? Huckabee has struck rich in the lottery of attention ever since he upset the Ames Straw Poll with second place, but is still stuck at 4 percent in an August poll.

Huckabee, even if he lacks the prerequisite popularity of his rivals, certainly has something to offer that few polarizing politicians can sport: heart.