FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
On our swing through South Carolina, we talked a lot of politics, interviewing the three leading Democratic contenders for president, local college students and the former governor of the state.
We also got a bit of down-home Carolina culture. Not too far from the South Carolina statehouse, you'll find a restaurant called Mac's on Main. It's got stick to your waistline soul food, live music every night and it's got Barry.
Barry Walker has what you call a big personality. He owns the joint literally. Barry is a councilman in Irmo, a little town outside of Columbia. He's had key presidential candidates stop by the restaurant regularly and he was happy to tell me what it felt like to see his town get so much national attention.
Mr. BARRY WALKER (Councilman, Irmo; Owner, Mac's on Main): We are ecstatic about all the attention we're getting. I mean, we're actually accustomed of making I guess the decision of nominating the first, you know, woman candidate for president or African-American candidate for president, and - or even on the Republican side, nominating that person; who is going to get the nomination for the Republican side. That's all I bring here first. And so we're just really elated to have all that kind of attention and really basking in their joy, you know, right now.
CHIDEYA: Tell us about what political party you like and what's important to you?
Mr. WALKER: I'm non-partisan. I'm an independent voter. I'm a conservative businessman, I mean, I own my own business. And my leanings are towards whatever politician's going to address a lot of my issues, which is, you know, health care, education, especially I have three teenagers and those type of issues. But again, I'm just so happy to be able to be choosing between a woman and an African-American and a white guy…
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Mr. WALKER: …for president.
CHIDEYA: So we got a chance to talk to the mayor of Columbia, former governor, a current state representative, all from different points of view. All talked about the economy, like you mentioned. It's a huge topic. As a business person, as an elected official, what would help out South Carolina?
Mr. WALKER: Well, since the gas prices have gotten to $3 a gallon, you know, I've seen a significant drop off of my customer base as in directly related to the $3-gallon gas. Those type of things on our level affect us more than does, you know, getting a tax break for capital gains, sales or whatever. You know, that affects us, but on our level, on a day-to-day person, everyday average Joe, walking down the street with 10 bucks to spend for lunch for me, to give me 10 bucks to have lunch, he has to put that in his tank to get to work.
Nobody didn't have to do that, you know, not even a year. Or two years ago, you couldn't - he didn't have to do that. So now, anybody who can address that issues, those issues of the economy, getting the economy going again, getting the average Joe that 10 bucks so he can come back to Mac's on Main and spend it with me to buy lunch, that's what I'm interested in hearing and seeing get done because, of course, you know, if I don't get them coming here doing that, then I won't be able to pay my employees, I won't be able to pay my mortgage, I won't be able to pay the light bill and I'll be out of business.
CHIDEYA: So in here, you have stickers, bumper stickers from the candidates and you have a whole table that has items from the campaign. Have folks walked through to some of the candidates?
Mr. WALKER: We found ourselves being the center of attention here. Pretty early on, last year, we had Senator Obama come through and pop in and had some peach cobbler and, you know, Senator Dodd, Chris Dodd from Connecticut, came in here for a breakfast meeting one time. So we decided to put the road to the White House down and we said, you know, that's our motto in life: Road to the White House leads through Mac's on Main. While we thought it was just a joke, we did it just to be that and a lot of the candidates picked up on it.
Mike Huckabee's headquarters was two doors down, and he never made it in here but all of his minions came in and had lunch and saw that and wanted me to put a bumper sticker down. I said nope, only your candidate can do that. And so since we've been here, we've had, like you saw on the road there, we had -Senator Biden has been in here. He put a bumper sticker down. Senator Edwards has been in here. He's put a bumper sticker down, Chris Dodd, Barack Obama. But we haven't seen from Hillary or anybody else on the Democratic side, and we haven't seen any of the Republicans. So I don't know if that's a miscue on their part, not wanting to reach out to the African-American businesses or whether, you know, being Huckabee - being two doors down, I would have thought of it as a golden opportunity to reach out, but he didn't take advantage of it, so…
CHIDEYA: You've got this place covered wall to wall to wall to wall in testimonials to your world-famous peach cobbler. You know, in your heart, what does Mac's on Main mean to you?
Mr. WALKER: I came from a computer business. I was a computer programmer for 20 years and, you know, nine years ago, I stepped away from that calling and said, I'm going to do want I really want to do in life, which was drink beer, eat food and play guitar.
CHIDEYA: Thanks a lot.
Mr. WALKER: Thank you.
CHIDEYA: And he's made his dream come true. Before we left Mac's on Main, Barry strapped on his guitar and gave us a taste of good old Southern rock.
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CHIDEYA: That's our show for today, and thank you for sharing your time with us. To listen to the show or subscribe to our podcast, visit our Web site nprnewsandnotes.org. No spaces, just nprnewsandnotes.org. To join the conversation or sign up for our newsletter, visit our blog at nprnewsandviews.org. NEWS & NOTES was created by NPR News and the African-American Public Radio Consortium.
Tomorrow, the new novel then asks what happens when whites move into the neighborhood where Dr. Martin Luther King was born? We talked to author Nathan McCall about the debate over gentrification.
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CHIDEYA: I'm Farai Chideya. This is NEWS & NOTES.
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