Mike McLeod

Mike McLeod began his career after graduating from law school and completing basic training in the Army National Guard.

However, his career was delayed because he was called to several months' active duty during the 1968 riots in Washington. He worked for Senator Herman Talmadge as his legislative director and speechwriter. He later went to work as counsel, and then general counsel and staff director, of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. In that capacity, he was responsible for drafting several major laws, usually two per year.

His ambition since boyhood was to become a writer. His favorite writer was Ernest Hemingway. He has always tried to follow the sparse, brief, clear style that Hemingway used in his great novel, "The Old Man And The Sea". This style is his model in all his writings.

His first book is the story of how he and his wife built a luxury vacation rental business as a hobby. His second book is "Blue Ridge Mountain Gardening: Four Principles You Must Know for Gardening in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

His third book dealt with politics and government and was published in March, 2016. Its title is "The Death of Civility and Common Sense: How America Has Become Dangerously Polarized".

Since there is no formula for how to correct this polarization, this book comes from his life's career in law, government, and politics. It includes anecdotes about the great men and women he has known, as well as some that were not so great.

One of these was former Vice President and Senator Hubert Humphrey, the greatest and most courageous man he has ever known. That is why the book is dedicated to Hubert Humphrey.

McLeod has recently retired from the full time practice of law although he continues to provide consulting services from his home office. Those services are described on his website www.mcleodaglaw.com.

He has three new books in the works. The first is a sequel to his book " The Death of Civility and Common Sense" because we have become polarized than even he thought possible when he wrote the first book in March 2016. Also he will do two books on farm policy in areas that he pioneered. The first will describe the mandatory commodity checkoff programs for agricultural commodities. The second will describe the development of the Federal Crop Insurance Program after he incorporated the American Association of Crop Insurers in 1980.