You can take the dog out of the fight...

I was going to wait until after the election to write about David Pryor's energy on the campaign trail, but after attending yesterday's rally in Fayetteville, I decided to go ahead and post it now. When my grandfather ran for governor in '52, he was defeated by Francis Cherry. Pryor ended up being Cherry's driver two years later in his bid for re-election. That was normally enough to take you off grandaddy's A-list with most pols, but not with Pryor. We were a Pryor family from the time he was elected to Congress.

As an aside, you just had to know my grandfather, who was from the old school in politics. With him, it was all black and white. Whether it was a campaign or an issue, you were with him or against him -- there was no gray area (if an opponent said they were leaning one way or another or were "inclined to oppose" an issue, he'd call them out on it on stage. "Either be for it or against it").

If you haven't read Pryor's book, read it. Regardless of your ideology, you'll love it. Like few others, it's one of those inspring books about Arkansas politics that'll make you want to make this a better state. Even spending time at Harvard this summer, I was surprised at the influence he still has on the Kennedy School after serving as the Director of the Institute of Politics there. The faculty talked about him daily.

There's no doubt why Governor Beebe tapped Pryor to fill this role. He doesn't do anything halfway. He's done us a tremendous favor by taking on this position, but after seeing him again on the trail yesterday, I think we've done him a big favor as well -- we've given him an excuse to get back at doing what he loves best. Here he is in his element:

Here's Doug Thompson's report from yesterday's rally