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.
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.