Word: finches
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...early favorite was Gov. Cliff Finch, a rough-hewn country boy from Northeast Mississippi--a section of the United States that rivals Louisiana's Cajun Country as the most removed from life as we know it. A self-proclaimed reformed racist and unquestionably a political opportunist, Finch had managed to put together a coalition of small farmers and poor laborers, both black and white. He appealed to poor folks with vague platitudes about working together, hand in hand, for the betterment of all. His symbols were the lunchpail and bulldozer. But after two years in office, it became painfully obvious...
...that was only for starters: Finch would show up for meetings late and then read the wrong speech; lie about employment statistics to create the illusion that his administration was solving the state's devastating unemployment problem; publicly denounce the state legislature just before they went in to vote on one of the few concrete bills Finch presented. In the Nixonian tradition, his cohorts told Jackson bankers to add to Finch's coffer or risk losing lucrative business with the state government...
Occasionally, Finch's old political finesse would shine. At a country barbeque, he would woo redneck throngs by talking about his childhood days working on the farm and toting water out to daddy in a fruit jar. But even Mississippi has gained some sophistication these days, and the old ploy just didn't work any longer...
...Finch's defeat in the run-off election in the Democratic primary has destroyed--for the time being at least--any speculating about a new kind of color-blind populism in Mississippi. In the wake of his defeat, Finch appears more a burp from Mississippi's populist past than the harbinger of a new kind of politics. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether Finch's decline was due to the shakiness of his alleged political base or to the numerous political blunders Finch made during the first two years of his governorship--blunders that a more astute populist politician...
Maurice Dantin, the victor of the fiercely competitive Democratic primary, is not a candidate who excites. In fact, the entire primary battle--except perhaps for Finch's participation--suggested that Mississippi is losing whatever politcal uniqueness it once had. The speeches bored, the issues were non-existent, and the candidates came across as conservative facsimiles of one another. All stood slightly to the right of Ronald Reagan. All were good family men, churchgoers, Rotarian-types who seemed to have gone straight from Ole Miss to Ole Miss Law School, on to the D.A.'s office, private practice and finally politics...