Editorials

Back in 1964, an Arizona senator got Alabama folks excited.

Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee for president, was catching on among Alabama Democrats, many of whom were disturbed and angered over the way their national party had denounced them for their segregationist inclinations.

They were looking for friendlier surroundings, and Republicans were telling them that they would be happy in the GOP.

The Goldwater bandwagon was rolling along. Even up in north Alabama, long a Democratic stronghold, "AuH2O" bumper stickers were appearing on cars and trucks.

Then one day the candidate, in listing the ways he would like to see government get out of the way of free enterprise, suggested that if he were president he would "sell TVA" and let private companies take over.

And soon, all along the Tennessee Valley — from Knoxville, Tenn., to Muscle Shoals, Ala. — the cry was heard: "Sell TVA? I'd rather sell Arizona."

Arizona Sen. John McCain may have made a similar slip in his recent visit to south Alabama.

After a rousing reception for his "straight talk" stump speech, the candidate opened the floor for questions.

Up popped a representative from the Alabama Farmer's Federation — ALFA — who asked, "if elected president, what is your plan to support farmers?"

And McCain replied: "I would do a lot of things. But I tell you what I won't do … I won't support subsidies."

And with that he opened a can of worms not unlike the one that other Arizona senator opened back in the '60s. He also placed state agricultural interests squarely on the horns of a dilemma.

Since the days of the New Deal, politicians on the left and the right have tried to draw a distinction between "good subsidies" and "bad subsidies," with the distinction usually being that subsidies that go to you are good. The others aren't.

The GOP nominee has announced that subsidies that go to a state Republican base group and one of the Alabama party's major financial contributors are in the "bad" category. As such, they should be eliminated.

It is hard to say just how many votes Goldwater's candor cost him in 1964. He carried the state, but with George Wallace dominating the Democrats it was a muddled outcome at best.

However, if farm interests in Alabama — and elsewhere — decided that John McCain is not the sort of Republican they want in the White House, then the GOP could be in a great deal of trouble.

The Democrats are not likely to let this issue fade away.