Posted on 04/07/2005 5:22:22 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Sanford-Rice 2008!
USN&WR is all about pushing Zuckerman's favorite pig.
SOME of Florida is. Give it that much.
Just look for kudzu growin'.
Texas was part of the Confederacy. It has never been Southern. And most Texans will tell you that. They are Texans, not Southerners.
You want to do a survey? Ask the question this way. "Somebody told me you're a Yankee. That's not true--but what are you?"
If someone from Texas doesn't respond "I'm a Texan," I'd be very surprised.
You'll almost never see someone sayin' "I'm a Georgian/Mississippian/Alabaman/Floridian/Carolinian/Missourian/Kentuckian/Tennessean/Virginian" in response. It's always "I'm a Southerner."
But as I mentioned above, the real test is, does kudzu grow there?
Not to rag on you, but you realize that photo is heavily shop'd.
I think he was a registered lobbyist for a foreign corp. Or maybe even a foreign government.
Hope the link works.
It cetrainly does grow from Ft Worth east.
Is she from the same state? If not they could run on the same ticket.
You got me on that geography--I was thinking about Beaumont and Nacogdoches and Jasper and considering whether they'd qualify under that rule and perhaps they do. And I don't think even folks from Mississippi would argue that those towns are pretty much the old South.
Still, even though you mentioned Ft. Worth, I bet you don't find a helluvalot of kudzu around Dallas or Ft. Worth any more. I would restrict my retraction to that eastern part--not Dallas or Ft. Worth, which are pretty much Yankeetown South, even though folks in Plano might like to pretend otherwise, putting Southern Living on their coffee table and whatnot.
You are quite incorrect.
Tancrado won in the first three rounds and was beaten BY BARBOUR in the final Eight. See this page:
http://www.surveysaintlouis.com/marchmadness/elite8.php
As for the rest of this thread, I'm frankly STUNNED that Freepers are reacting on the basis of looks and accent and all that superficial crap. Does no one remember how the MSM pounded and pounded on the notion that Bush (and Reagan) was a stupid dolt and a dangerous cowboy? How Bush could speak well enough to order Clinton a Big Mac?
Most importantly, has everyone forgotten who the Democrat candidate will be?
No one here thinks warm and cuddly Southern Gentleman with easy smile and quick self depreciating wit and powerful, concise rhetoric clothed in the soft velvet of a gentle drawl WON'T play like gangbusters against that plastic crocodile they call the Senator from NY???????
Are you insane?
Haley brings EXACTLY what we need - a distinctive personality. The problem with the Bill Frists and George Allens of the world, for all their proper policy, is they are plain, drab, vanilla, cookie cutter politicians.
Such men don't win the presidency (Except GHWB and that only on Reagan's coat-tails). Haley is distinctive...and that's a GOOD thing.
Add to that that he stands where the clear majority of the voters stand on issues across the board (something else Hitlery can't bring to the table), more political markers to call in than any other man in America (including Rudy) and you have a powerful candidate.
Beyond that, no GOP candidate NEEDS to win the superficial votes on the left coast and in New England and New York to win. The majority of the voters in places like Ohio and Florida are far more interested in the issues than whether or not Haley has good teeth.
YES, there are such stupid voters out there, but they already vote overwhelmingly for Democrats anyway, right (the natural result of stupidity)?
All that said, the lobbyist tag IS a HUGE problem. figure out a way to beat that - or to hang an even bigger anchor around Hitlery's neck, and there's no reason at all he can't win.
Nope! Not gonna vote for Haley Barbour.
I'm sure that thought crossed my mind at some point as I ogled... er, looked... at that photo, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't one of oh, say the first 30 thoughts that occured to me.
;^ )
No. The word is "hottie", not "scrawny".
I am still hoping we can talk Condi Rice into running.
Damn, I figured they must not be fully posted on the web when I couldn't google it quickly...and I was reacting to the limited info I could find. You are correct--my post was wrong about Barbour's numerical win. I should have listened to my instincts, thought to simply ignore googling and type in the full www.surveysaintlouis.com (in my defense, I did try www.surveystlouis.com).
However, I'm not wrong about Barbour pushing his contacts to make noise for him. Or how USN&WR is all about pushing Zuckerman's favorite pig. In taking a look at this poll, now that I CAN find the numbers, I also have concerns that I would with any internet poll--easily fixed. I thought this was a real poll, where the candidates had been really head-to-head polled all the way up the 64, based on the response in the papers. Silly me, forgetting that the media will do anything to stir up a horserace.
I'm not one of those reacting on the basis of superficial crap, however. I'd consider voting for Haley, though I don't think his personal platform is all that likely to be compatible with my politics. I am gonna say that his looks will work against him, because there is no question in my mind that looks have become a pathetic part of the American political scene. How else would that dumbass lawyer get on the Kerry ticket (and I don't mean Kerry)?
But as to the comment that "The problem with the Bill Frists and George Allens of the world, for all their proper policy, is they are plain, drab, vanilla, cookie cutter politicians," I don't find Haley all that distinctive. I'm not sure who I'm choosing yet, but don't think it'll be on the basis of personality or looks anyway.
LOL.
Hello ... Media Heat is
I agree .. Reagan used to say, "if you haven't made somebody mad today, then you're not doing your job."
So I guess Haley was doing his job.
I always liked him .. but that southern accent will drive the NE liberals wild!! LOL
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