No, but we can make it one!
After all, rules are rules...
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 ...
So, a question to anyone who knows about Barbour: what's in his background that will be dragged out if/when he might run for president? There's probably already a boxful of stuff that's been collected by HRC et al...ready to hand over to the MSM...just in case.
Missippy Gov. Ping
sigh...
No, but we can make it one!
After all, rules are rules...
Send that man to a cosmetic dentist! STAT!
It may be right, or it may be wrong, but teeth like that will cost this man votes big time North of the Mason/Dixon Line. The knock on Barbour will that he is a hayseed Southerner, and those two front teeth will cement the impression.
With straight, capped teeth in front, he is a contender.
Funny the article didn't mention TANCREDO who beat Rush Limbaugh and came close to winning this poll.
Stop your racist attacks on Southerners!
Onyx is going to LOVE this thread.
With all due respect...Haley No!
First, he comes from a very well-respected family (e.g. his cousin is a federal judge). Secondly, he founded one of the most successful white-shoe lobbying firms in Washington, D.C. Lastly, he was an excellent chariman of the Republican NATIONAL Committee. Put that all together and you'll see that he is well-connected out the wazoo. I'd put his Rolodex up against anyone's in the nation.
The bottom line? Haley ain't no "hayseed" Southerner.
Of course, some folks don't know the difference, and they wrongly consider everyone who is a little heavy and has a thick accent to be doltish rube. What a mistake!
Barbour is a good man and an outstanding strategist! Something we'll need with Rove gone.
All all the options, except for Ms Rice, I say he's about the best!!
Hey, I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying what it is.
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.
I guess Barbour won't be able to get very many votes in the NE, hmmm, sounds about like the current president......
I like Haley Barbour... a lot. Let's not forget that he was chairman of the RNC when the party went from the ash heap of the 1992 elections to controlling both houses of Congress two short years later. Gingrich gets the credit for engineering that triumph, but Haley was on the front line also
Is it important for Barbour to display goofy teeth in the South? A little capping and bonding can go a long way toward making the rest of the country more likely to vote for him.
I ask as a stranger in your land, seeking knowledge: Does Barbour keep his teeth that way because they appeal to the voters in the South?
"Haley ain't no "hayseed" Southerner."
You are absolutely right!
He is very clever, and knows
exactly how to win elections.
I think he proved himself during
his tenure as RNC Chairman.
Our current, and prior, Presidents
have Southern accents.
One I love, and the other I'd
just as soon forget. ;o)
"I ask as a stranger in your land, seeking knowledge: Does Barbour keep his teeth that way because they appeal to the voters in the South?"
In any land, that would be considered tacky.
Bad choice. The Republicans are going to need someone who is a genuine fresh face. Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina is the man.
Regards, Ivan
Hes not gonna win so just stay in Miss and save us from Moore and Co
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