Jim Rhodes, the late four-term governor of Ohio, could be a real pain in the neck. He could also be a very funny man, in a Rhodesian, Southern Ohio kind of way. I remember two days, both at the Ohio State Fair, where I experienced both Jims. The first time was in 1994 and the second in 1998, long after Rhodes left office. Rhodes was getting up in years and couldn't walk the fairgrounds the way he did in the old days, when he was the grand poobah and chief architect of the annual summer event in Columbus. So, both times, I ended up driving him around the fairground in a golf cart. Both times, he was ostensibly there to show two first-time statewide candidates – Ken Blackwell and Joe Deters, both of Cincinnati - how to campaign at the Ohio State Fair, which, in Rhodes' mind, was the principal qualification for public office in Ohio. The first time it was with Blackwell, in 1994. The former Cincinnati councilman and mayor was running for state treasurer. Rhodes had taken a shine to
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