RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Let's continue our coast-to-coast conversation on the state of America. We've been calling people along Interstate 10 this week. The highway sweeps across the southern U.S. and on the way, it passes New Orleans. That's the area where we reached Donald and Colleen Bordelon. We've been talking with them ever since they started rebuilding their house, which flooded during Hurricane Katrina.
Mr. DONALD BORDELON (Resident, New Orleans): We're doing pretty good. We're doing fine in the houses, you know, (unintelligible) 95 percent finish. We turned and took off for a Christmas holiday, my daughter got married.
INSKEEP: Oh, congratulations.
Mr. BORDELON: And Coleen's here, too, you know.
INSKEEP: Hi, Coleen.
Ms. COLEEN BORDELON (Resident, New Orleans): How are you doing, Steve?
INSKEEP: I'm doing great. It's good to talk with you again. How are things going on in your street right now?
Mr. BORDELON: Slow. It's coming back slowly, you know, I mean, we got one-sixteenth of what we have before, you know. But there's more people. We got another man down the street just moved in. Seem like a nice guy, you know.
Ms. BORDELON: And then a lot of people - they're waiting for their Road Home money to rebuild. So a bunch of people are just now starting to come back. But it's like the little things.
INSKEEP: Coleen Bordelon, you just referred to Road Home money. That is, if I'm not mistaken, government money that is designed, you know, programmed to help people to repair their houses, to rebuild, to come back. Is that right?
Ms. BORDELON: Correct.
INSKEEP: And not everybody has gotten their check.
Mr. BORDELON: No.
Ms. BORDELON: No, slow.
Mr. BORDELON: Real slow.
INSKEEP: Well now, Donald and Coleen, can you tell me, as you follow the news from Washington and the news from the presidential campaign, has anything the candidates said seemed to connect with the concerns you have in your community?
Mr. BORDELON: Not a whole lot. Their concern about it. You know, there's just so many other things. It's hard to get a lot of help there, you know, it really is.
INSKEEP: Well, stay with us, if you would because I want to continue on down Interstate 10. We get this map that is an arm spans length long at this point continuing across the country and the yellow line traces us all the way to Chipley, Florida. Am I saying that correctly Fred Peel(ph)?
Mr. FRED PEEL (Retired County Sheriff, Chipley, Florida): That's exactly correct.
INSKEEP: Fred Peel is a retired county sheriff in Chipley, Florida. Welcome to the program.
Mr. PEEL: Well, good morning.
INSKEEP: Now how closely have you been following the presidential campaign?
Mr. PEEL: Very close. We're very attentive to politics, obviously, having been in it pretty much all my adult life and I read the books each one of the candidates writes…
INSKEEP: When you say we, you mean you and…
Mr. PEEL: My wife, Vicky(ph).
INSKEEP: And has she been with you during your 24 years when you were sheriff there?
Mr. PEEL: That's correct. She has been through, I guess, I had eight campaigns over my lifetime and one-sixth of them so we've been involved, you know, in state level politics and mainly on national level.
INSKEEP: Now you are Democrat, is that right?
Mr. PEEL: That's correct.
INSKEEP: You have had a little bit of practice trying to figure out which of these guys is worth supporting. Does anybody excite you this time around on either party?
Mr. PEEL: I would say that John Edwards would do very well here in West Florida. I would concede that West Florida is generally a Republican, but there is still a lot of Democrats in the panhandle and a big candidate can appeal to this area.
INSKEEP: What is it about John Edwards or what he has to say that seems to resonate there, even with Republicans that you know?
Mr. PEEL: Well, here's some Republicans comment that they could support John Edwards and I would think it's mainly his desire to break this stranglehold by big business, which I suppose is the drug companies and insurance industries, and those kind of things.
INSKEEP: Is there a major national issue that's on your mind right now?
Mr. PEEL: Mostly, surrounding economic issues and that would range everything from national debt down to hot property taxes and those types of things. But, of course, the war is a major issue with the people here too.
INSKEEP: You got kids or grandkids?
Mr. PEEL: We have kids, yes.
INSKEEP: Do you fell like you're generation is going to be able to leave young people our country that's better than the one that was left to you once upon a time?
Mr. PEEL: The answer to that would be, no, and we had a family around last night and talked about this may be the first time that we leave the next generation a debt, spending is out of control on the national level.
INSKEEP: Well, Fred Peel, stay with us, if you would, and Donald and Coleen BORDELON are also still on the line outside of New Orleans. We're going to go next to Jacksonville, Florida, which is roughly the place where Interstate 10 hits the Atlantic Coast. That's where we found Mike Hancock(ph). Welcome to the program, sir.
Mr. MIKE HANCOCK (Resident, Florida): Thanks, Steve. It's good to be with you this morning.
INSKEEP: Would you describe what you do for a living?
Mr. HANCOCK: I'm a small business owner. I - my wife and I own a couple of small businesses. We do spray-on bed liners for pickup trucks and we do underground sewer rehabilitation work. Then I'm an old radio guy from years ago, so I do voiceover work every once in a while and then also have done political consulting on campaigns and that sort of thing in the past.
INSKEEP: You mentioned those other businesses were dependent somewhat on the real estate market, the underground sewer rehabilitation and also…
Mr. HANCOCK: Right.
INSKEEP: And, I guess, here things as to do with the automotive economy and our people are tricking out their trucks…
Mr. HANCOCK: Yeah…
INSKEEP: How's business?
Mr. HANCOCK: And unfortunately for us right now, both of our primary businesses are taking quite a hit because of the economy. And, obviously, the economy then becomes our number one concern. Driving down most of the major roadways over here in Jacksonville, you see 2007 models still lining the car dealerships, which tells us that, you know, the '08s have barely even sold yet because they still have plenty of '07s to sell.
INSKEEP: Hmm. I suppose we should mention Florida's going to have its voting here in the month of January.
Mr. HANCOCK: That's correct. I'll be voting in the Republican primary.
INSKEEP: And are any candidates exciting you?
Mr. HANCOCK: Yeah. I was an early joiner with the Huckabee team. After hearing a lot about what he said and some of the fairly radical ideas he has to shake things up, I would be surprised if he can make good on some of the things he'd like to do, simply because he has to work with Congress.
And whether it's a Republican or a Democrat Congress, not casting aspersions either way, because frankly, I think most of mainstream America is very disappointed and never would have believed that Republicans would have allowed spending to get out of control the way they have.
But having said all that, Huckabee is the guy that my wife Joanie and I will be voting for in the primary.
INSKEEP: You know, I want to ask the same question I asked of Fred Peel. Do you feel like you're going to be able to leave the country in better shape than you got it?
Mr. HANCOCK: Yeah. Steve, I still really am optimistic about that. And I think right now, at this particular time in the history, we have a lot of reasons to be pessimistic about the future of the country. I'm still very, very proud to be an American. I think we're going to have to work our butts off to make sure that we leave it better. I'm committed and prepared to do that. I know Fred, Don and Colleen are as well. I think God's hand continues to be on this country for whatever reason, and I'm glad that it does.
INSKEEP: Well, now, Donald and Colleen Bordelon, what are your thoughts about the way the country is headed and whether you'll be able to leave it better than you found it?
Mr. BORDELON: It's pretty much about the way he said it, you know? Everything's so much different than what it was 25 years ago, you know? It really scares you sometimes.
Mr. HANCOCK: But, I tell you - this is Mike over in Jacksonville. You know, we have high hopes for these different candidates. And yet, they get into the establishment up there in Washington, D.C., and it just seems like that the establishment becomes too difficult to really make any major substantive changes. So does it really make a big difference on whether we elect Mike Huckabee or John Edwards, you know?
Gosh, I would like to think that it would make a huge difference, and I'm going to vote to make my voice heard. I'm just not sure that it does. I don't know how the others feel.
Mr. BORDELON: Pretty much the same thing right here with me and Colleen. You know, it's just - it's politics, you know?
Mr. HANCOCK: Right.
Mr. BORDELON: Yeah.
Mr. PEEL: Guys, this is Fred. And I would agree, once you get into the system, even at the state government, it's constructed in a way that it would be hard for one individual to make that much difference.
Mr. BORDELON: Yeah, had an old tax collector here tell me many years ago that if I had the choice of doing a good job or being perceived to be doing a good job, I would always take the perception.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. PEEL: That's right.
INSKEEP: Oh, my. Can I just ask if any of you has ever taken a long road trip along Interstate 10, this road we've been tracing by phone, across the country here?
Mr. PEEL: Well, I - this is Fred. I lived in Jacksonville briefly at one time, and, obviously, been to New Orleans. So I'm very familiar with the whole strip. And there's a lot of variation in our country. We were here before I-10 was built. So we've seen a great deal of change.
INSKEEP: Donald and Colleen Bordelon, you ever think about getting out of New Orleans and driving West to Sonica Monica, say, on I-10?
Mr. BORDELON: Maybe one day. We got - we still got a lot of work to do down here in New Orleans. Too many other things to do first.
INSKEEP: Donald and Colleen Bordelon in St. Bernards Parish, Louisiana. Thanks very much.
Ms. BORDELON: Thank you.
INSKEEP: Fred Peel in Chipley, Florida. Thank you very much for speaking with us.
Mr. PEEL: It was an honor and a privilege. And you get a little education when hear perspectives from everyone. And I think that's what we all need to do, is just to listen to everyone and familiarize our self with what goes on.
INSKEEP: Mike Hancock in Jacksonville, Florida, thanks to you.
Mr. HANCOCK: Steve, a real pleasure to be with you all this morning.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: They are some of the voices we've heard this week along Interstate 10. Our conversation with voters across that portion of the country ends today on Iowa caucus day - the official beginning of the 2008 presidential campaign.
You could only be listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.