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He said he wanted to do some target practiceA day...He said he wanted to do some target practiceA day later he killed six peopleIt turned out he had just walked away from Fort Roots, the federal mental-health facility for veterans in North Little Rock, where hed been for several years, apparently because of trauma from his war experiencesIt took George Daniel a long time to get over thatAnd it was the best argument I ever encountered for the kind of background checks on gun buyers required by the Brady bill, which I finally signed into law in 1993, after nineteen more years of avoidable killings by known felons, stalkers, and people with mental disorders When Carl and I got back to Fayetteville, I was higher than a kiteI had always liked one-on-one retail politics when I was working for other candidatesNow I really loved going into the little towns, or stopping at country stores, cafs, and filling stations along the roadI was never very good at asking for money, but I liked going into peoples homes and businesses and asking for their votesBesides, you could never tell when you tiffany bracelet would meet a colorful character, hear an interesting story, learn something worth knowing, or make a new friend That first day on the campaign trail would be followed by scores of others just like itI would set out in the morning from Fayetteville, work as many towns and counties as I could until late at night, then head back home if I had to teach the next day or, if I didnt, stay with a hospitable Democrat so that I could go on to the next county in the morning The next Sunday I went back east to finish up the mountain countiesI almost didnt make itI had forgotten to fill the tank of my 1970 American Motors Gremlin before the weekendBecause of the gasoline shortage, federal law required filling stations to be closed on SundayBut I had to get back to the hillsIn desperation, I called the president of our local natural-gas company, Charles Scharlau, and asked him if he would let me have a tank of gas from the pump in his equipment yardHe told me to go on down there and hed take care of itTo my astonishment he showed up and filled my miu miu bags gas tank himselfCharles Scharlau single-handedly kept my fledgling campaign going First I drove to Alpena to see the county Democratic chairman, Bo Forney, whom I had missed on my first stop thereI found his little house with no troubleThere was a pickup truck with a gun rack in the front yard, standard equipment for mountain menBo met me at the front door in jeans and a white T-shirt over his ample girthHe was watching TV and didnt say much as I made my pitch for his supportWhen I finished, he said that Hammerschmidt needed beating, and that although he would win his hometown of Harrison by a large margin, he thought we could do some good in the rural part of Boone CountyThen he gave me the names of some people to see, told me Id get more votes if I got a haircut, said hed support me, and went back to his televisionI wasnt sure what to make of Bo until I took a closer look at his pickup on my way back to the carIt had a bumper sticker that said Dont Blame MeLater, when I asked Bo about the bumper sticker, he said he didnt care purple fendi bags what the critics said about McGovern, the Democrats were for the common people and the Republicans werent, and thats all there was to itWhen I was President and Bo was in ill health, our mutual friend and fellow yellow-dog Democrat Levi Phillips brought him to spend the night with us in the White HouseBo had a good time, but refused to sleep in the Lincoln BedroomHe couldnt forgive him for the Republican Partys excesses during the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, or for its devotion to the wealthy and powerful throughout the twentieth centuryLincoln are both in heaven, I like to think theyve gotten together and resolved their differences After Alpena, I went to Flippin, a town of about a thousand in Marion County, which had more miles of unpaved roads than any other in our stateI went to see two young men I wanted to run my campaign there, Jim Red Milligan and Kearney CarltonThey put me between them in Reds pickup and took off down one of those dirt roads to Everton, a tiny place in the most remote part of the county, to see chanel j12 watch Leon Swofford, who owned the only store and whose support was worth a couple of hundred votesAbout ten miles out of town, Red stopped the truck in the middle of nowhereWe were engulfed in dustHe took out a pack of Red Man chewing tobacco, put a wad in his mouth, then handed it to Kearney, who followed suitThen Kearney handed it to me and said, We want to see what youre made ofIf youre man enough to chew this tobacco, well be for youIf youre not, well kick you out and let you walk back to townI thought about it and said, Open the damn doorThey glared at me for about five seconds, then roared with laughter and took off down the road to Swoffords storeWe got the votes there, and a lot more over the yearsIf they had measured me by my taste for Red Man, I might still be wandering the back roads of Marion County A few weeks later, Id be tested like that againI was in Clarksville in the Arkansas River valley with my twenty-two-year-old county leader, Ron Taylor, who was from a prominent political family and politically wise well beyond his cartier santos white y10:56 PM - Thursday, May 6, 2010
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