Jackson Baker reports in The Memphis Flyer on the reactions of GOP voters to the Man Who Would Be Governor

The brief talk, followed by a question-and-answer session, seems to register with his audience.

On her way out, Maxine Gernert, the newly elected chair of the McMinn County Republican Party, whispers to Adam Nickas, Gibbons’ driver and (as they say in the political trade) “body man” charged with getting him to the places where he needs to be and making sure he shows up on time, “How exciting! He gives the sense of being authentic.”

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On the other hand, there are dissenters. Bryan Jackson, a retired economics teacher, challenges Gibbons on his opposition to a state income tax. “I can’t support anybody for governor who’ll take the income tax off the table,” Jackson tells the candidate affably but firmly.

“Well, it’s off the table,” says Gibbons, who cites what he says is the haphazard condition of the state of California, which has the highest per capita state income-tax rate in the nation. Gibbons isn’t about to espouse a remedy that engendered a long-running legislative war in the early part of this decade and virtually eroded the GOP base of Sundquist, the last Republican from Shelby County to hold the office of governor.

Sounds good to me. Of course, I would have preferred the title of the piece to have been “The Man Who Will Be Governor”, but as we all know, the perfect is no more than the enemy of the good.