I have nothing personally against the man. But his governorship of the “Great State of Alabama,” (picture Howell Heflin delivering that just stated proclamation) would leave much to be desired.

The Rev. Roy Moore - you’ll note that I refer to him as Reverend, not Judge - wants to be this state’s next governor yet there are two oppositions to that goal.

The first is Bob Riley. By virtue of the resounding defeat he delivered upon Don Siegelman in 2002 (How many more votes was it?), Riley won the election and the hearts of Republicans everywhere.

Ha. Did I really just write that?

Although I consider myself independent of the two BIG parties, ever since Ronald Reagan rode into the White House on a “there you go again,” my heart has had GOP leanings. And although George Bush can’t do anything about high gas prices or tell us just what dimensional hellhole a certain Iraqi dictator smuggled his weapons of mass destruction into before we bombed Baghdad, I must confess an eagerness to apologize for W’s shortcomings. I think most who voted for him would think that because he came into office as the most despised man in the nation by liberals and Democrats and there’s nothing quite like a fight to the finish. You pick a side and cuss the other person out. Be it in a tight race for president, a college football game between two big rivals, or watching those two women mud wrestle over “taste great” or “less filling.”

Okay, I’ll apologize for that bad analogy.

Anyway, my point is Bob Riley wasn’t - and isn’t - much my cup of tea. I’m half-Irish and guilty of snap judgment (must have something to do with those English blokes eternally ticking us off), but Riley perturbed me once. Actually, it was his press aide that really got under my skin during one of his boss’s “elect-me” events, but perception is everything. The aide pushed me off to one side as if I were a rabid autograph seeker while Riley shook every last hand in the building until it was empty and then deemed it time to talk to me.

The second obstacle will be whoever the challenger is from the Democrats side, be it Siegelman or Lucy Baxley. Siegelman’s basic platform is an educational lottery and he will preach it until he’s blue in the face. The same Christian right that defeated Siegelman’s lottery proposal when he was in office will probably defeat Siegelman should he win the nomination.

Now comes Rev. Roy. I’m sure here’s a man who believed in his heart that standing up for the Ten Commandments was the right thing to do. And I’m not saying he was wrong for doing so. But I look at Roy Moore and see a demagogue who seeks to sway the born-again on the belief that he has their best interests at heart. However, like I said, perception is everything.

Right now, I’m leaning toward Lucy. I love Lucy. She wears red all the time and genuinely is a nice lady who seems like she cares about where the “Great State of Alabama” is headed. I’ve met her once and she complimented an article of mine about her giving a recent speech.

There goes that snap judgment again.

Kevin Pearcey is Group Managing Editor of Greenville Newspapers, LLC. He can be reached by phone at 383-9302, ext. 136 or by email at: editor@greenville.advocate.com.