You hit it perfectly: the valueless measure by which Barbour judges a politician.
An Obama can be more easily excused for his evils, than a Barbour for his amoral support of same. Obama doesn't know any better, theoretically, given his background.
It is contemptible to give support of any sort to the vicious and the seditious.
But it is also, helpful. That Barbour showed what his weakness is, that is being star-struck. A beta, or a gamma. Not an Alpha. Not a serious man of kind we need in these times. A player in the power game. A man that will be dominated, can be dominated, seeks to be dominated -- by the dominant.
It's interesting. Barbour's at his peak. But at that peak, in all the power he has he gets trapped. Confuses the assumption of massive political power by a charlatan in a susceptible nation to such a fraud as Obama as played with being a great politician. Yet it is just a construct of a idea propagandized into Obama that is like a loose jetsam caught at the top of a great cultural wave. That's not being a great politician.
Barbour might have said that Obama is great in exploiting the politics of our time. That would allow for a caution as to how long Obama will be able to do so.
Obama's rise is not accounted to Obama, but to those who have supported the vacant and immoral delusions he represents. That also is what Barbour misses. And also is why Barbour's statement is unwise praise, highly unwise praise. To support such a destructive man in the very week he has pushed the perverted immorality of homosexual marriage upon a nation that rejects it, is not only unwise, it is contemptible.