Wednesday, August 1, 2007

On The Neshoba County Fair

Bobby Harrison writing for the Daily Journal writes these observations on the Fair:
They all flock to speak underneath the Founders' Square Pavilion. People fortunate enough to have fair cabins in the high rent district on Founders' Square can sit on their front porch and hear the speeches.

Because the fair attracts statewide candidates, it also attracts the statewide media. Or, maybe it is vice versa. Because the media come, perhaps the statewide candidates believe they also need to be there.

At any rate, the attendance of the statewide media is crucial to the importance that is placed on the Neshoba County Fair.

It was interesting to me to see how many members of the media had not yet seen these candidates speak. Many have been touring since April with the same speech and here in July several reporters and columnists appeared to be hearing these folks for the first time. Candidates, especially Democratic candidates, still go for the media not the primarily Republican crowds.
Now, few if any persons sitting under the tin-roofed pavilion is there to listen to the speech and decide for whom to vote. Many people who listen are politicos - many working in some aspects of politics or government.

Most are Republican. The people who own the cabins for the most part are affluent white people - the very definition of Republican in Mississippi.

I was suprised to be at such a big political event in Mississippi and not see more than a half dozen black folks attending and most of them were working for candidates. It is clearly a Republican affair.
But at the fair, Eaves was speaking to a packed house where the Barbour supporters far outnumbered his supporters. Yet, he rose to the occasion - o such an extent that some defensive Barbour supporters began to heckle him.

Eaves also handled that with poise.

I am not saying he is going to win, but the Jackson attorney deserves credit for his effort

This is very true. When Barbour supporters interrupted Eaves' speech he improvised and did so well. In response to Eaves' impressive showing Barbour responded with a low personal attack against John Eaves and his wife Angel who was the picture of class.

The Daily Journal Article

4 comments:

  1. He had it coming with his talk of "Angel raising his 4 kids" and "Angel is a great mother to my 4 kids". They haven't even been married for 2 years and she is not the mother of his children. If he runs on such a strong family values platform then people deserve to know why he went through a divorce with the mother of his children. Does the Bible condone that John Arthur?

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  2. Angel didn't have it coming though.

    Do you have any information that she isn't being a great mom? And even if you thought you did should that be an issue?

    I really think lines must be drawn and attacking another candidates family members is not appropriate.

    I think it is interesting that though Barbour's niece got big Katrina contracts and then went ahead and overcharged the government that opponents haven't attacked Haley or Charles Barbour over that.

    Democrats are staying away from attacking other folk's families. Perhaps Republicans should do the same.

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  3. I never said she wasn't a good mother or didn't have motherly qualities but she is NOT their mother by any means, those kids have one and only one mother and Eaves is not married to her any longer.
    To clarify it's Barbour's brother's daughter-in-law so she is not in the immediate family at all. I don't deny that she is most likely a crook and used her Hispanic heritage to unfairly get a large contract for her business. I am sure the authorities will get to the bottom of it. There I said it, I acknowledged something criminal happened however Haley Barbour has no control over what the wives of his nephews or nieces do. The fact that Democrats aren't attacking him on that is because there is no substance in them and too far down the family line to really have an effect not because they are nice people.......

    However, I think Barbour's quip (and it was a quip not what people are making it out to be) called Eaves out on his values, if it was so insulting to Angel Eaves then it was just as insulting to Marsha Barbour considering he called both of them "trophy wives".

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  4. Gatepost... you need to think before you speak.

    Saying that Angel "is NOT their mother by any means" is as shallow a statement as I've ever read on a message board.

    If she is their step-mother, then she is a type of mother BY SOME MEANS.

    Sometimes, as in my situation, a step-parent can be MORE of a parent than a birth-parent.

    Please know what you're talking about before you type.

    Thanks.

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