There are 18 people waiting for him, older residents who never miss an election. He drapes his jacket over a chair near the piano and begins talking. This is the folksy Brazil, the man whose speech is inflected with the hard A's of his native Ohio and whose sentence structure twists and turns like that of George Bush. There are no frontal attacks this evening. Brazil talks quietly of his reformer's past and his proposals to privatize the building of public schools, monitor charter schools and hire more reading teachers.
Brazil ambles out the door an hour later, and the neighbors set to chatting.
On the couch, retired teacher Elizabeth Simms says she doesn't know who will get her vote, but she doesn't imagine it will go to Brazil. There's a way to do that. Especially if there is confusion given the concoction we've got brewing here. Now he starts to stress that he isn't really that nasty. You know, I'm not trying to be Mr. Bad Guy, Mr. Nasty.