Haley Barbour: 'Purity' will lose 2012 race

Politico ^ | June 3, 2011 | DAN HIRSCHHORN

[UniqueViews]

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour issued a stern warning to conservatives Friday: relent on ideological purity in the primaries or risk losing the general election.

"We're going to nominate someone for president who doesn't agree with you on everything and who you don’t agree with on everything," Barbour said. "But I'll tell you what. You're going to agree with them a whole lot more than you agree with Barack Obama."

[UniqueViews]

He is right -- but we still need to have a better nominee than Romney.

I personally have hopes for Rick Perry right now.

[RobbyS]

Well, Rick is “impure” enough. Kind of throwback to the like of James G. Blaine.

[eclecticEel]

Given that Rand Paul isn’t running that’s a given.

But I do wonder why GOP politicians are always so eager to damp out whatever hopes their base might have. Rather than issue pessimistic statements like this, wouldn’t it be better to highlight the great points about the various contenders - heck, if you can’t come up with even a couple great things to say about someone maybe they shouldn’t be running in the first place.

[UniqueViews]

Well, I don’t know, if Perry will run.

But right now Romney is the GOP frontrunner and is doing very well in fundraising.

I think Perry is the “anti-Romney”.

[UniqueViews]

I think Barbour’s main point is that people need to use “ability to beat Obama” as the most important criteria, when they decide which GOP candidate to support.

[onyx]

I personally have hopes for Rick Perry right now.

I personally have hopes that Sarah Palin will run.

Stephen Bannon Interview with WMAL – Maker of Palin Film “Undefeated”

I hope Haley Barbour sees the film!

[ElkGroveDan]

Seriously this is such a tired old song. I can’t believe that every fool who utters those words thinks they are making a serious point.

[Lazlo in PA]

Thanks failure POTUS candidate. You really know what you are talking about. No. He is not right. Now is the time to steer things to the right. Haley can go to hell. What exactly has this loser done for the betterment of the party? Nothing.

[philman_36]

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour issued a stern warning to conservatives Friday: relent on ideological purity in the primaries or risk losing the general election.
You've got to give it to Wordsmith Dan, that's some craftsmanship there!
No quotation marks so it's Dan's interpretation of what Barbour said.

Now, to hear Barbour himself just follow the link and draw your own conclusion as to what he said.
No transcript, only video - Haley Barbour Remarks - C-SPAN Video Library

Barbour Warns Against Ideological Purity
“We’re going to nominate someone for president who doesn’t agree with you on everything and who you don’t agree with on everything,” Barbour said. “But I’ll tell you what. You’re going to agree with them a whole lot more than you’re going to agree with Barack Obama.”
No kidding, Captain Obvious. However, I don't want Obamalite or Obamalike in my candidate and so far that's all the Republicans have.

“Remember, in politics, purity is the enemy of victory,” Barbour said. “We cannot expect our candidate to be pure. Winning is about unity…sticking together to achieve the main thing.”

My conclusion is that he basically said this - All you conservatives just STFU and go along with the Establishment Republican Party like good little children 'cause we know who's best for you...and it just might be me.

And this is from a "strong" Republican leader?

[marron]

You see, if you give up your principles early, you don’t have to worry about being sold out later.

[AlexW]

Republican voters accept nothing but purity, while Demoncraps, along with the other brain dead Americans, will happily vote for a black Muslim, anti-American Marxist, illegal president who will literally destroy America.

Walter Williams may be right...The US has no hope.

[marron]

Demoncraps, along with the other brain dead Americans, will happily vote for a black Muslim, anti-American Marxist, illegal president who will literally destroy America.

If you're a Dem, thats ideological purity.

[sourcery]

By this reasoning, neither Barack Obama nor FDR could ever possibly have been elected.

[RegulatorCountry]

I always test such sweeping statements by inverting them, which exposes the unspoken tacit assumption.

“Haley Barbour: ‘Impurity’ will win the 2012 race.”

Kind of puts the spin right back where it belongs, now doesn’t it?

[Berlin_Freeper]

This week SurveyUSA released the results of 50 separate but simultaneously conducted statewide surveys asking registered voters if they would vote for Republican John McCain or Democrat Hillary Clinton [They meant Obama not Hillary] in an election “today.” Outcome:

- McCain 258
- Obama 280

When SurveyUSA conducted the identical research in October 2006, Obama carried two states and the District of Columbia:

[83Vet4Life]

In other words, we picked Mitt so shut up and vote for him or else!

[llandres]

Yes, he is right as was Reagan. BHO et al are licking their chops at the prospect of us being divided, which will ensure a second term for the evil One. As I’ve often said, the worst we have to offer is MILES better than b. hussein o.

I pray that we choose someone who has broad enough appeal to win the large numbers to defeat BHO. A good conservative lion, skilled enough to whip him in the oratory/debates, not cowered by political correctness, yet charismatic to the necessary, wide cross-section of voters.

We simply MUST keep our eye on the prize - DEFEAT OBAMA.

[RegulatorCountry]

And, in other words, “Mitt is impure.”

Wonder what his church thinks about this impurity? Fairly staunch conservatives, Mormon voters are. Mormon politicians? Not so much. Cognitive dissonance, relying upon the team mentality for Mormon support. See: Huntsman, Reid.

[RobbyS]

Perry is nothing if not ambitious. He has made friends with a lot of people with money.

[vette6387]

Best comment of the lot here. Sarah Palin said it best tonight in her interview on Fox. Paraphrasing “We sent a large number of new faces to Congress this year, most of them through the efforts of the Tea Party, but nothing much has come out by way of change and it’s due to the crappy leadership, if you can call it that, of the old guard Republicans ( of which Haley Barbour is certainly one).” She wen on to say that it appears that many of the Republicans in the Congress are afraid to offend, or they don’t want to make waves, when that’s what they were elected to do. The Moronic Troika”(ie. Boner, McCarty and Cantor) are a disgrace, padding around the capitol in lock step, like they are important (more like impotent) but doing next to nothing all the while running their mouths about the change “that’s coming.” I submit that if they don’t change course, the RATS will take the ‘12 election in a walk, and our country will be finished for all intents and purposes.