Crowds of people surrounded Gov. Jeb Bush, begging for his autograph and posing for quick pictures with the visiting celebrity.
The scene was my hometown, Hattiesburg, Miss., not Florida.
Bush jetted into Hattiesburg this week to campaign with Haley Barbour, a longtime friend who is involved in a tight race to unseat incumbent Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
Bush called it a "twofer," since he also was putting in a good word for his older brother's re-election. It was his second foray into gubernatorial politics in another state.
Traveling with Bush in Florida is often like riding around with a rock star because almost everyone who sees him wants an autograph and a picture. Mississippi was no different.
Barbour was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997 and is a longtime Bush family friend who worked at the White House when the governor's father was vice president.
Barbour is best known as one of Washington's top lobbyists, but he has always maintained a home in Yazoo City, Miss. Despite decades of work in the nation's Capital, he commutes home on the weekends to the small town on the edge of the Mississippi Delta.
His critics point to his days in Washington as a negative, but Barbour cheerfully notes that Mississippi has never had a governor who was close to a president and many of the nation's power brokers.
The mood was jubilant as Bush joined Barbour on a stage at Jones County Junior College near Hattiesburg to speak to a standing-room-only crowd. Margaret Pickering, wife of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering Sr., was near tears as she thanked the Bush family for supporting her husband's fight to become a member of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
"I have great admiration and appreciation for all of the Bush family," she said. Her voice broke as she thanked Jeb Bush's brother and father for nominating her husband to the federal bench. The conservative judge has become the focal point of attacks by abortion rights supporters and Democrats who have blocked his nomination.
"We are not living in civil times," Bush said, expressing hope that Washington will abandon the unfair treatment of judicial nominees who are maligned for "purely political reasons."
Bush reminded the crowd that California has elected "The Terminator" as governor and predicted that Barbour will soon join him as the "Barbour-rater." It will make meetings of the Republican Governors Association livelier, he noted.
"I know Haley is the right man for the right time," Bush said. "He knows how to make it happen, and he has a Rolodex so big he has to get a pickup truck to carry it around."
Bush made the quick trip aboard a luxurious private jet furnished by Warren W. Tichenor, a San Antonio, Texas, businessman with close ties to his brother and father.
Bush said he'll soon make a trip to Louisiana to campaign for his brother and another Republican running for governor.
Political campaigning ages him, the governor noted.
"Political years are like dog years; we're about 400 years old now," Bush said as he stood beside Barbour at a fish fry that ended his day.
After a dash back to the airplane for the quick trip home, Bush was ready for a taste of catfish that he had only smelled before leaving.
"What, no catfish?" he asked press secretary Alia Faraj. "You go to Mississippi and avoid eating the catfish at a fish fry? It smelled so good. I love that batter. That's the best thing about campaigning - all the road food. It's not the T-shirts and hats."
As the jet roared into the sky, Bush noted: "Mississippi is a little different than Florida, did anybody notice? We're not as Southern, I guess."
