[StBernard] Why Haley Barbour Is A Serious Republican Presidential Candidate

[Westley Annis]

Why Haley Barbour Is A Serious Republican Presidential Candidate

The easiest job in political punditry is to laugh off Mississippi Governor
Haley Barbour. On the surface, Barbour is almost a caricature of a Southern
pol. His delta accent is so thick you might think he was Billy Joe
MacAllister jumpin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge in Bobby Gentry's "Ode to
Billy Joe."

Mama hollered at the back door
"Y'all remember to wipe your feet."

Pictures of Barbour show a hog-jowled, self-described "fat redneck" - though
in person the newly slimmed Barbour (down 25 pounds) looks more like TV
anchorman, Lou Dobbs.

Finally, there is the lobbyist thing. In the decade between his time heading
up the Republican National Committee in the 1990s and his current gig as
Mississippi's governor, Barbour made millions representing the two
industries most hated by the media - big oil and big tobacco.

All of this led the Weekly Standard's influential conservative Bill Kristol
to call Barbour a "yahoo." Barbour, you see, is from Yazoo City, Miss. Yazoo
City = Yahoo. Very original, Mr. Kristol.

But there are four solid reasons why Barbour could be the Republican sleeper
in 2012. Let's look at them in ascending order.

4.   The Republican field, less than 10 months from the 2012 Iowa caucuses,
does not have a front runner yet. Mitt Romney has troubles with evangelicals
and small government conservatives. Sarah Palin has squandered her fame
(though not her fortune) and now looks unserious. Mike Huckabee doesn't want
it . the telltale sign is that he has comfortably settled into his old
overweight self. Newt Gingrich, though he imagines himself a Churchill in
the wilderness, is past his sell date. Tim Pawlenty is trying to be all
things to all conservatives but so far he is unable to convey much passion.
Some deep part of Mitch Daniels apparently doesn't want the job. Jeb Bush
has the wrong last name. Chris Christie might be too regional.

3.   Barbour is easily the most connected of all Republican candidates. He
knows every governor, most legislators, all the fundraisers. He is
well-liked.

2.   He has performed well as Mississippi's governor, both during the
Hurricane Katrina crisis and in the everyday governor's stuff of tamping
down the state's notorious tort bar, balancing budgets and promoting
Mississippi as a place to do business. Barbour is, simply, a terrific
salesmen for Mississippi's business community.

1.   He is the only Republican candidate who talks about economic growth as
Ronald Reagan would have. When Romney talks about growth, it is in the
white-paper language of the Boston private equity swell he used to be.
Daniels and Christie have lashed themselves to trimmed budgets, and that's
mostly what they talk about, especially Christie. Fine as it goes -
essential, even - but we don't hear enough growth talk from either Daniels
or Christie.

Last Friday, Forbes columnist Ken Fisher and I had lunch with Barbour at a
Silicon Valley event. It was hosted by one of the Valley's big CEOs. A small
group of 30 or so attended, with a mix of recognizable names and
up-and-coming entrepreneurs. (I've left out the names, because it would
imply an endorsement among CEOs who attended mainly to learn more about
Barbour. I can say that some were avid Obama supporters in 2008.)

While Washington punditry is quick to see Barbour and his state as backwater
(see Kristol, Bill), the CEOs, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in the
crowd took a different view. I talked to two Indian immigrant entrepreneurs
who are building solar panel plants in Mississippi, and not just because of
Barbour's salesmanship or tax credits. They liked the complete package of
business friendly taxes, regulations, a tamed tort bar, and a good supply of
young engineers coming out of Mississippi State in Starkville.

"Are the Mississippi State grads up to your Silicon Valley standards," I
asked.

"Oh, yes. They are very practical, too." Translation: Techies who build
things other than social networks.

The Republican field for 2012 is wide open because no candidate, until
Barbour, has made the consistent, compelling and credible case for economic
growth. That case should be easy to make. It is simply this: All of
America's problems will get worse with 2% or less annual growth. That's the
growth America had in the first decade of this century. Actually, it was
1.8%, and sure enough, all of our fiscal problems got worse.

Say it loudly:  America must grow at 3.5% or better to have any chance of
transcending the fiscal messes, while providing a decent social safety net
and securing our safety in a hostile world. That is the plain truth of it.

Reagan, inheriting the Nixon-Ford-Carter malaise, understood this. There is
evidence to believe that Barbour, assessing the Bush-Obama fiscal disasters,
gets it, too.

Barbour also gets another thing that is a core truth about American
politics. The pro-growth candidate always comes off as the optimist. And
Americans, given a choice, will almost always vote for the optimist.