Almanac: At the Capitol

Sen. Dean Barkley's campaign is directing people to our profile in which he revealed he battled depression and drinking and went into counseling after returning from his stint in Washington.  I spoke with two undecided voters to see what impact his revelation had on them.  One said they were more likely to vote for him because he admitted he has a problem and got help.  The other said they were concerned that Barkley is still drinking and says he can do it in moderation. 

Barkley told me after the interview that if he gets any higher in the polls he thought his opponents may use the information against him so he wanted to get it out first.  On Oct. 22 at 8:00 pm on TPT-2 we will have more from Barkley's children on how his drinking and depression and dealing with them have affected their family.

It's ironic that of course this confession was not something Barkley planned when he gave us his "Big Three" life-shaping moments ahead of time.  For the record, Barkley's Big Three in his words are:  

 1. The assassination of John F. Kennedy affected me deeply. It helped form
 my Independent nature and to question the political establishment as it
exists.

 2. The War in Vietnam made me a political activist. It made me care about
 how our Government worked and spurred me into political action to challenge
 the decisions being made by our Government.

 3. My marriage to Susan and the birth of my 2 children Garrett and Brooke
made me much more responsible and caused me to care about the long term
issues facing our country and my children. It made me think about what
deficit spending would do to my kids’ future and what would happen to them
once Medicare and Social Security hit the rocks.