Talking up a GOP 'hottie' for '08 race

Newsday ^ | April 7, 2005 | James Pinkerton

[billorites]

The surprise victory of a "dark horse" in an early presidential test is a reminder that the 2008 election is under way, already producing surprises. Yet, there's a logic to the latest surprise.

According to the March 28 issue of U.S. News , the current "hottie" among Republican presidential hopefuls the Iowa caucuses, after all, are just 33 months away is Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi. And that was before Barbour won the "March Madness" online playoffs.

Those playoffs, free to anyone with an e-mail account, were conducted by a Missouri-based research firm. A total of 64 names everyone from John McCain to Elizabeth Dole to Rush Limbaugh - were pitted against each other, as in the basketball tournament, until one winner, Barbour, emerged on April 4.

This result, of course, was unscientific. But since when is politics a science? In fact, PR stunts are a proven part of the presidential process. Jimmy Carter won a series of straw polls in Iowa in 1975, even as rival candidates scoffed at these "meaningless" pseudo-events. But a year later Carter was the Democratic nominee.

Some Barbourites are actively tooting Haley's horn. Ed Rogers, a White House aide to Presidents Reagan and Bush 41 and a past campaigner for Bush 43, was Barbour's law partner until Barbour was elected governor in 2003. In talking up the Mississippian's credentials, Rogers recalls that Barbour was the political director of the Reagan White House before going on to chair the Republican National Committee when the GOP took over Congress in 1994. As governor, Rogers continues, Barbour has enacted sweeping tort reform and held the line on taxes and spending. "A lot of Washington Republicans seem to have forgotten the importance of fiscal discipline," Rogers adds, signaling the "outsider" edge of a possible Barbour candidacy.

[skaterboy]

Hayseed?

Didnt seem to hurt Slick Willie none

[skaterboy]

Love a barefoot woman with a big gun!!

[onyx]

Onyx is going to LOVE this thread.






No doubt about it!
All this attention being paid to Haley is NOT a surprise to me!
I'm just wondering if we're ready to share him?

[skaterboy]

Anybody who picks the leader of the free world based on teeth deserves a secord Carter term

[Yossarian]

Secondly, he founded one of the most successful white-shoe lobbying firms in Washington, D.C.

Big negative. Most of the nation (myself included) views political lobbyists with as much enthusiasm as they view johns for hookers. And this would cut across political lines.

[Hatteras]

"Didnt seem to hurt Slick Willie none"

No, see, you don't understand. Democrats will use any excuse to vote for a Democrat and any excuse to not vote for a Republican. It doesn't matter if the excuses are the same, they'll use them the way they see fit.

silly....

[Mr. Jeeves]

"Haley Barbour" and "hottie" don't even belong in the same encyclopedia, much less the same sentence.

Southerners who haven't learned to speak with a "Nightly News English" accent have a handicap in winning votes in the rest of the country. Bush did it, but most candidates don't have his political gifts.

[CyberAnt]

He was a real trouble maker when he headed the RNC.

I wasn't involved in politics at the time - but I remember the media was treating Haley worse than they're now treating DeLay.

I think he might have a lot of baggage, but I don't have any details - it was too many years ago.

[wildbill]

Forget about Barbour. He won't project well with his slow Southern charm and jowly cheeks.

Despite what anyone says about a candidate's specific programs and policies or his position on the conservative/liberal axis, the real determinant of how well he does on the hustings and whether he wins is...get ready for it...HOW HE COMES ACROSS ON TV.

[itsamelman]

With all due respect...Haley No!

Halle Yes!

[wardaddy]

Take your BS off this thread.

[wardaddy]

Where have you been?

Bush, Klintoon, Carter and LBJ all had Southern Accents and account for 6 of the 11 past POTUS elections victories.

Yeah boy that Southern Accent is sure a deal killer isn't it...lol

[gridlock]

Take your BS off this thread.

Sorry. Didn't mean to offend. But if you think a candidate's appearance does not effect his political fortunes, and that those front teeth are going to play well across the country, you're dreaming.

[wardaddy]

I was kidding you more or less.

I had the impulse to use that statement.

The Powers That Be send that missle my way around here frequently.

I couldn't resist.

But...I think Haley's bulldog mug is part of his charm.

[bourbon]

I agree. Despite the fact that I am from Mississippi and I really like Gov. Barbour, IMHO Haley has too much baggage from being a lobbyist to be a credible candidate for President.

Heck, Ronnie Musgrove (Haley's Democratic predeccessor as Gov. of MS) almost beat Haley by constantly repeating the phrase "Washington lobbyist Haley Barbour" in the last election cycle. Of course, this tactic promised to be doubly or triply effective on the national stage.

I only mentioned Haley's past to make a point about him not being a "hayseed" Southerner. It's hard to imagine a true "hayseed" having so much success in the cutthroat legal culture inside the Beltway.

[bourbon]

promised to be doubly or triply effective = promises to be doubly or triply effective

predeccessor = predecessor

pls. pardon all the typos.

[Sonny M]

Can you put me on your PING list?

[WKB]

You being from NY first you will have to explain
why you want to be on a Ms ping list. :<)
Just kidding
Welcome aboard

[The Great Yazoo]

that Southern Accent is sure a deal killer isn't it...

First, Texas is unique. Texans will be the first to tell you that. It's really not Southern (like, say, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Georgia). Florida is similarly not Southern, despite its physical geography.

Second, although the current incumbent has a Southern accent, everyone knows that his father, mother, and grandparents certainly do not. Everyone also knows the president is, at heart, as much a Yalee and a Harvard MBA as a drawling Texan.

Third, the main stream media do not hate Southern Democrats like Carter and Clinton as they hate Southern Republicans. They hated Johnson, but were stuck with him as the heir to Camelot and as Goldwater's alternative.

Fourth, Carter and Clinton were both incredibly lucky. Carter started his campaign the day after the 1972 election. Watergate and Ed Bradley being assigned to Carter's campaign were huge breaks for Carter. His Iowa campaign was a stroke of genius (which, unfortunately for us, seems to have departed Carter once actually in Washington). Clinton was blessed by the "Reform" party and its loony leader whose name I can't recall.
BR> If the GOP nominates a Southerner, look for all sorts of documentaries and specials about Jessie Helms, Strom Thurmond (not to be mentioned will be his being a Democrat when his outrageous statements were made), and David Dukes.

As a Southern-born Southerner, I know exactly what Yankees think of us. And it's not much.

[wardaddy]

As a 7th generation Southern born Southerner from a still Southern state (Mississippi).

I disagree.

I disagree that any but the western most Texan is not a Southerner.

However. I would agree that only pockets of Florida south of Lake City remain Southern. Clewiston probably being one of the most deep Southern outposts. We used to say Florida was Southern north of Orlando but that is not really accurate now post-Mouse era.

The west coast and NE states you refer to don't matter. They don't vote (R) anyhow even if they do loathe Southerners.

What does matter is the South, Rockies and Midwest. And I can tell ya that folks in rural PA or Indiana have nothing against a Southern accent.

Is it a coincidence as well that both national leaders in Congress are Southern too? (Frist-DeLay)

Now Bush has a more southern accent than I do. I assume he picked it up in Midland as a boy.

So tell me again Texas ain't Southern.

You did pick a nice muddy river for your name...one that gave the Yankees fits btw.

We shall see.

I will never make an excuse about being Southern or an accent. I think Southerners are the best orators in the nation and I think historically time and again that has been proven correct. Do you think certain Yankees worry about grating accents? And who cares about what the MSM thinks? They aside from FOX are no longer relevant except they are part of the opposition.