George W. Bush is less popular than poison ivy; the economy is in worse shape than Homer Simpson; if the Republican Party were a bank, it would need a bailout. But none of that can explain why Democrat Travis Childers won a startling special election to represent Mississippi's First Congressional District in May or why he's expected to keep his seat in November.
To understand the appeal the former Prentiss County chancery clerk has in deep red northern Mississippi, it's less helpful to know his party affiliation than to watch him deliver a 15-minute soliloquy on the glories of fried green...