Then, hop in the car and set your clock back to the 19th century as you bump along Old Magnolia Road until US 90. You're on the Lawton Chiles Trail.
Researching and writing an authorized biography of Florida Governor Walkin' Lawton Chiles (1930-1998).
November 3, 2007
Lake Miccosukee
Then, hop in the car and set your clock back to the 19th century as you bump along Old Magnolia Road until US 90. You're on the Lawton Chiles Trail.
November 2, 2007
Old Pisgah United Methodist Church
You can be sure that in Iowa, New Hampshire, and above all South Carolina, the Democratic presidential candidates are making the rounds on Sunday to AME churches, trying to secure the black community's vote.
November 1, 2007
A Starvin' Dog's Belly

Stunned, Fields digs around for the right doghouse analogy: "Fill a starvin' dog's belly and he'll never bit ya. The difference between a dog and a man."
A trip to Google located the source of the saying finally:
Mark Twain: "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."
The screenwriter for the West Wing episode gave it some Texan twang so Congressman Fields could deliver it. It sounds much better. I'm not sure when or where Twain said it. But I found more sayings from the Yellow Dog era.
Harry S Truman: "You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog."
Dwight Eisenhower: "What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight--it's the size of the fight in the dog."
and Lawton Chiles: "A cut dog barks."
Lawton and Rhea Chiles tested out Twain's wisdom in 1958 when they went door to door for his bid for state representative from Polk County. Lawton made fun of Rhea for carrying dog biscuits for the mean, starvin' dogs...until he got cornered by a German shepherd and yelled "Dog biscuit!"
October 31, 2007
Jack-O'-Lantern Politics

As in Chiles' day, the tactic of many a Democratic governor is "scare 'em so you can tax 'em." You present an "Armageddon" or "Apocalypse" budget, with state services and spending cut so bad you can barely count on your trash getting picked up. You talk about how the status quo is unacceptable because the budget deficit is $1 billion or more. Then, once you've got folks spooked, you show 'em the alternative: your grand vision for a bolder, active, smart government with the tools to invest in our health care, education, and environment. We'll call it the "Investment" budget, or the "Responsible" budget. Finally, you reveal the fine print on whose taxes get raised and how much, and you hit the road for the "tax-and spend" tour.
There are lots of variations on this scenario, but it amounts to an old-fashioned honey and vinegar policy. To know why government needs fixin', you've gotta show how bad it can get and how good. A lot of editorial writers and voters complain about "scare tactics" anytime a hypothetical budget with zero education spending gets leaked, but isn't on man's scare tactic another man's truth? Call it slick PR, call it bait-and-switch, to me it's about as harmful as carving a jack-o'-lantern on Halloween.
Thanks to the Angry Sicilian for the great Halloween picture.
Old Magnolia Road
But on the far eastern rim of Leon County, Old Magnolia Road stubbornly keeps its own time. Unpaved red clay and bits of gravel and here and there. A single narrow lane. Impassable after a rain. Canopied by mossy live oaks whose roots are exposed in the steep banks on either side or the road.
By the time you get to the US 90 intersection, driving south on Old Magnolia Road, and that gravely clay turns into the finest federal asphalt, you'll feel accomplished. It's a 10 minute drive at slow speed, but the quiet makes it feel longer. Check out Jan Annino Godown's Scenic Driving Florida for more details on the drive.
Bradley's Country Store
Bradley's Country Store is another stop off the path of the Walk but definitely on the Chiles Trail and a hearty meal for the weary traveler. They're known for two things mostly--sausage and grits. Bradley's Country Fun Day, a festival held the Saturday before Thanksgiving, is coming up soon.
Just keep driving east on Centerville Road in Tallahassee. When the Spanish mossed oaks start to canopy over the highway, you're getting close. Centerville Road becomes Moccasin Gap Road. Eventually you'll see a big open field on your right and a large pond on your left. Bradley Road forms a T-intersection with Moccasin Gap, and on the right, since 1927, is Bradley's Country Store.
In the back you'll find memorabilia from dignitaries you'd expect to visit and some surprises--Bill Clinton, Lawton Chiles, etc. Gov. Chiles knew Bradley's well.
On New Year's Even in 1993, Gov. Chiles visited the Store to buy some of the its famous course-ground grits. While there, he started gabbing with Frank and Lillian Bradley, then owners of the establishment. They said the would have to stop to making grits because their 75-year-old grist mill didn't meet modern regs. Gov. Chiles grabbed Frank for an impromptu inspection of the mill in the rain.
At the next Cabinet meeting, Chiles talked to Secretary of Agriculture Bob Crawford. The next week health inspectors visited to Bradley's Store to make sure it got the necessary fixes for compliance. Janet Bradley Fryzel, who ran the store at the time, remembered him when she heard of his passing in 1998. "There were no pretensions about him. He was just a real person who didn't try to be something other than what he was. He was just Lawton Chiles, who happened to be governor."
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Citation:
Ensley, Gerald. “
1998.
October 29, 2007
Trash on the Campaign Trail: '70 and '07

In DeFuniak Springs: "The aluminum can looks like it is going to be with us forever. It really distresses me that people will destroy all of our beauty with their litter...It's awful hard to catch people of this kind, but I'm going to work to see that the penalties are made more severe for both littering and vandalism." (Chiles Hikes)
In Ponce De Leon: "I would never be a litterbug. I carried a Coke can 10 miles in my pocket one day." (Van Gieson)
In Lakeland: "There's so much litter along the highway. I hear companies are paying to get throw-away cans back, and even at a penny a piece, I could finance a fantastic campaign if I picked up everyone I saw." (Brown)

Route 360 never looked so good!
For all their differences, the Pollard '07 and Chiles '70 campaigns share a common value: willingness to sweat, blister, pick up beer cans, and kick up dirt on the roads and highways rather than sling it at political opponents.
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Citations:
Brown, Lonnie. “Walk Now A Commitment For
“
Van Gieson, John. “That Speck On Horizon: It’s Walkin’ Lawton Chiles.” The Ledger.
US 90 vs. The Information SuperHighway
North Florida didn't even have an interstate, let alone an information superhighway like the internet. To reach every corner of the state, the Chiles campaign relied on the unpredictable network of barbershop and general store scuttlebutt as much as editorials from the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald. Even in urban Miami, Chiles personally waved signs to get a honk from folks on their way to work. He counted progress by the number of shoes he had worn through, not gallons of gas burned.
Now, to advertise the completion of his 99-county drive-and-rally campaign, John Edwards (D) for president posted its own campaign own newspaper online for millions to read. No need for a letter to the editor; or for Edwards to stand at the edge of a cornfield with a sign; or even to notify a single media outlet before online publication. A rally one night becomes old news by the next morning--everyone's already read the skinny by the time they go to lunch via the campaign homepage, using their laptop or iPhone.
The internet may be the newest form of asymmetric campaign warfare. Is it also the best?
October 28, 2007
The 99-County Strategy
Former Senator John Edwards (D), candidate for the presidency, has now been to all the counties Iowa has to offer. According to Politics1.com, Hillary Clinton has so far visited 39; Barack Obama, 59.
By Christmas they'll all be going to sleep with visions of butter cows and corn cobs dancing in their heads.