COMMENTARY/EXCERPTS

Here (in Pine Bluff, Ark.,) folks still inherit their political affiliation the way they do hall trees. Given a halfway decent excuse, many a Southerner who has gone after strange political gods would come home and vote Democratic on the presidential line once again. It would save us the trouble of thinking. But the governor of Massachusetts is having an increasingly difficult time passing as a good ol’ boy. You might as well try to advertise quince as watermelon. And the Americanization of the South has proceeded to such an extent that Republican is no longer a wholly foreign term. Bush may be a Connecticut Yankee turned Houston oil man, but in Southern terms he’s still got it over a Democratic candidate with the soul of an actuary.