Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Talking up a GOP 'hottie' for '08 race
Newsday ^ | April 7, 2005 | James Pinkerton

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 ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: 2008; barbour; barbour2008; barbourisafatcat; edrogers; msmcherrypicking; noconstitutionalist
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-75 last
To: bourbon

He needs to:

a. Lose 30 pounds

b. Start coloring his hair

This sounds very vapid, I know, but its (largely) all about HOW you come across on TV.


61 posted on 04/07/2005 8:25:21 PM PDT by Al Simmons (4-time 'W' voter, 1994-2004.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: LibertarianInExile

To clarify...what i said about the poll was to you, what I said about the "looks" issue was to all those others who had been discussing it, not to you.


62 posted on 04/07/2005 9:10:50 PM PDT by WillRain ("Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: onyx

I know you don't want to miss this one. Who do I think will be the nominee? I don't have a clue.


63 posted on 04/07/2005 9:12:52 PM PDT by Torie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WillRain

I assumed as much. I was just addressing the remainder of your post, not as if it were directed to me personally. No stress.


64 posted on 04/07/2005 9:48:38 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile (The South will rise again? Hell, we ever get states' rights firmly back in place, the CSA has risen!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Torie

:)


At this point, I am clueless too.

65 posted on 04/07/2005 9:48:40 PM PDT by onyx (Robert Frost "Good fences make good neighbors." Build the fence, Mr. President and Congress.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: skaterboy

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


LOL!

PLEASE...don't wish that on us. ;o)

There are plenty of folks on this
very thread who are interested in
nothing more than his looks, or
lack thereof...ITO.

BTW, I think he will be able to
charm the pants off of the red
states...and beyond.

Never misunderestimate the power of
a genuine Southern Gentleman.


66 posted on 04/07/2005 10:52:28 PM PDT by dixiechick2000 (President Bush is a mensch in cowboy boots.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: wardaddy

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


Big Ole Bump!


67 posted on 04/07/2005 10:53:44 PM PDT by dixiechick2000 (President Bush is a mensch in cowboy boots.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: billorites
As much as I hate to say it, I think Barbour would have a lot of problems in the Upper Midwest. Lobbyists are not held in high regard here at all, particulary among blue collar voters, which are needed to win. Now, I actually have no problem with lobbyists, but most people outisde of political junkies don't know anything about them.

Personally, I'd like to see Mark Sanford run. I think he can Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New Hampshire, as well as all the areas Bush won. Populists do well in the Upper Midwest, and with the spending problems and his term limit pledge, he has a good start to work with. He's good on life and guns as well, which is always a plus.

68 posted on 04/07/2005 11:33:04 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan ("If Stabenow were any bigger a roadblock, she could halt traffic on all of I-75.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gridlock
Isn't he lucky? Some want to talk about his teeth? Shoot, at least he has some, I sure don't and besides, his are the right kind to eat corn on the cob with.
69 posted on 04/08/2005 1:22:18 AM PDT by gulfcoast6 (. or, ?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: gridlock

"A Southerner has a built-in handicap when it comes to campaigning in the North. What is no problem Down South will become an object of ridicule Up North. Haley Barbour can be the most well spoken, well connected, well educated man since Thomas Jefferson, but those teeth will cost him five points in the polls anywhere more than 100 miles from a Stuckey's franchise."

We usually don't win in the NE anyway. Maybe this will help us in the Midwest though.




70 posted on 04/08/2005 5:23:05 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (60 votes and the world changes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: gridlock

You have a tooth fetish - or are you just plain weird?

Even suggesting that a presidential campaign will turn on someone's teeth being perfect does your brain great disservice. Or is it that you are an orthodontist or cosmetologist trying to drum up business?


71 posted on 04/08/2005 5:44:41 AM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: AFPhys
You have a tooth fetish - or are you just plain weird?

I've been called worse...

But take a closer look, shall we...?

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

The two top front teeth protrude and show significant wear and discoloration. They have a gap and and uneven bottom line. Every cartoonist in the World is going to show those two babies with a piece of hay sticking out from between them. How could they not?

The adjacent tooth on his left (our right) shows yet another color, and is an obvious poorly matched cap. All the money this man has, and he can't afford competent dental work? I've seen temporary crowns that match better than that!

Two one hour sessions with a reasonably competent cosmetic dentist will eliminate all of these problems, for under $2500. Why would he not have this work done?

I am not a dentist, and not a tooth fetishist (if such a thing exists). But how could anyone not notice these choppers?

72 posted on 04/08/2005 6:51:11 AM PDT by gridlock (ELIMINATE PERVERSE INCENTIVES)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: jimfree

73 posted on 04/08/2005 6:55:14 AM PDT by JZelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: gridlock

Who cares, besides you? Sounds like you have a really weird fetish.


74 posted on 04/08/2005 7:02:52 AM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: gridlock

Well, if you are only saying that the work could and should be done...sure - I agree.

I would be stunned if it did not happen and, BTW, he didn't lose a big chunk of weight...if in fact he decides to run.

I just take it as a no-brainer that you wax the car when you are trying to sell it. Hardly worth comment.


75 posted on 04/08/2005 4:53:04 PM PDT by WillRain ("Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-75 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson