Early exit polling data are in, and…

We have some exclusive shocking news to share with IBCR fans nationwide.

• 100% of those who entered the polling booth exited.
• In the state of Alabama, 54% identify themselves as bammers. Barney gets 27% and the other 19% are fans of Princess Vespa, daughter of Roland, King of the Druids.
• A majority of those not declaring themselves Bama fans believe Nick Saban grows football players like Saruman grew orcs in the bowels of Isengard.
• Among Auburn fans, a stark minority voted for retaining current head football coach Gene Chizik. Only 28% think Frank gets another chance to wear the barber shirt on the sidelines.
• Nationally, @LSUFreek is the favorite farker on the innerwebs.
• @Banditref is a rising favorite parody filmmaker among a solid majority of voters.
• Gary Danielson is tolerated by a plurality of voters. Both Verne Lundquist and Tim Brando are clowns.
• Alabama is a solid favorite to repeat as BCS Champions in a historic run.
• However, if the BCS included a game of Quiddatch, Chip Kelly’s Oregon Ducks win in a landslide.
• Our polling analysis indicates that Anakin Skywalker wouldn’t have turned to the dark side if Sara Jean Underwood played Padme.

Go vote. And if you bump into an exit pollster, tell them you voted for Dave because he is da bombz.

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The missing topic from the campaign and the debates: The environment

Remember this line from June 2008, right after Barack Obama had secured the Democrat nomination for President over Hillary Clinton? It was a line that made the left giddy. It made independents and moderates gasp and conservatives giggle.

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“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

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As it turns out, it really wasn’t. It also wasn’t the moment where we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; or when we secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.

The economy is still a moribund mess. The promised level of 5% unemployment seems laughable. Obamacare is slowly revealing itself as the monster deficit creator that conservatives knew it would be and the world sees the United States as a idle power. We are four years closer to a nuclear Iran and the middle east is a raging inferno. Secured? Clearly not.

But what is strangely missing from this campaign is a subject that, to my memory, hasn’t even been explored in any of the four Presidential and Vice Presidential debates. What about the environment? What about climate change and rising sea levels?

Obama has been AWOL on this subject since at least 2009, and the disastrous management of the Gulf Oil Spill all but sealed the deal. This is no environmental president, and if he wanted to hammer Mitt Romney on how those polluting Republicans would poison the planet, he’d have done it in a major fashion in the first debate.

From Malor’s first link:

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Remember those long-ago days when Obama wanted a greenhouse "cap and trade" program? Remember when it died in the Democratic-controlled Senate without his support? Can you name what year it was the last time Obama attended a UN climate change conference? (Hint: it came before a famous "shellacking" in the polls). 

You don't have to take my word for it that Obama has failed to match his rhetoric to his deeds. Former Vice President Al Gore himself famously called out Obama for failing to take action on the climate, saying "“He has simply not made the case for action. He has not defended the science against the ongoing, withering and dishonest attacks. Nor has he provided a presidential venue for the scientific community — including our own National Academy — to bring the reality of the science before the public.”

After the failed Copenhagen climate change conference, Friends of the Earth said, "Obama has deeply disappointed not only those listening to his speech at the UN talks, he has disappointed the whole world." The spokesman for the World Development Movement criticized, ""he president said he came to act, but showed little evidence of doing so." And the World Wildlife Fund said Obama had let the world down by failing to push Congress for climate change legislation."

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He’s shown little evidence of acting in almost everything he’s promised. Healthcare costs are not lower and aren’t going down. Job creation isn’t growing enough to even keep up with population growth. The only reason why our unemployment rate isn’t in double digits is because more people are moving out of the workforce than new jobs are being created, and the labor participation rate is at its highest level since the transition from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan. It should come as no surprise then that Obama doesn’t want to talk much about receding oceans and whatnot.

The stunning lack of progress on all fronts has the left quite dismayed and is probably a big reason why polls show such a huge enthusiasm gap between the left and the right in the 2012 cycle. It’s also probably a big reason why independents are swinging to Romney in almost every swing state. But the curious omission of environmental policy from any serious discussion has vocal members of the hard left livid.

With exactly two weeks left until Election Day, it’s nearly impossible for Obama to try to pivot (again) to this topic. If he does so, expect the GOP to pounce on it as another reason why Obama also doesn’t want to talk much about the economy, jobs or the middle east and why he’s much happier talking about investing in Chinese oil companies and explaining how aircraft carriers and submarines work.

Here’s that megalomaniacal speech from four years ago:

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Sources: Alabama Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby considering retirement after 2012 elections

Multiple independent sources tell IBCR that both Alabama Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby are “seriously” considering retirement following the 2012 elections.

Sources in Montgomery, Mobile and Birmingham indicate that both of the long-serving Senators are considering stepping aside, with Sessions being the most likely to announce his decision.

Sessions, first elected to the US Senate in 1996, has been one of the most outspoken and fervent conservatives in the upper chamber. He rose to the rank of Captain in the US Army and served as the US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, then served as the Attorney General for the the state of Alabama before being elected to the Senate.

Sources also indicate—albeit with a “50/50” degree of confidence—that Sessions is on Mitt Romney’s short list as a running mate in the 2012 election.

Sessions’ strong conservative credentials and deep popularity in the southeastern US are seen as positive attributes as a running mate, and his military and law enforcement expertise are seen as providing balance to Romney’s private sector and business acumen.

Shelby was originally elected as a Democrat in 1986. He famously switched to the Republicans following the 1994 “Glorious Revolution,” when the GOP gained the majority in Congress midway through President Bill Clinton's first term. He was re-elected in 1998 and has faced no significant electoral opposition since.

Both US Senators have been strong conservative voices in the Senate.

In the 2010 elections, Republicans won a majority of both the Alabama Senate and the House of Representatives as well as the Governor’s office and all other state-wide offices of significance. Even many local seats switched hands and provided the Alabama GOP with the best “ground game” since the Reconstruction Era.

With Alabama safely in red hands for at least the foreseeable future, both of the highest profile statewide elected representatives see the 2012 through 2016 elections as opportunities for fresh faces to emerge.

Sources indicate that current Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne are quietly assembling campaign apparatus for runs at either or both seats.

Developing…

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SCOTUS just handed the White House to Mitt Romney

Watch former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s response to the US Supreme Court’s opinion upholding the key part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka, Obamacare.

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Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, which held that Congress could not use the commerce clause of the US Constitution to compel individuals to participate in a market for any good or service, but that it could impose a tax on those who didn’t. Despite the government’s position in court and in selling PPACA on the grounds that the mandate wasn’t a tax, the Court found that it was.

Which means the passage of Obamacare was a fraud. Here’s Barack Obama, vehemently denying that a penalty to be collected via the Internal Revenue Service is a tax:

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Barack Obama has just become a one-term President.

Why? Four reasons:

1. Obama now has to defend the largest tax increase on the middle class in the history of middle class tax increases. Poor people won’t have to pay the penalty tax and the wealthy can easily afford health insurance.

2. Obama can’t run against the Supreme Court now. John Roberts joined the liberal wing of the Court and authored the majority opinion. So much for the “five Republicans in black robes taking away your healthcare” campaign meme.

3. A clear majority of the American people deeply oppose Obamacare without realizing that it was a tax increase.

4. Public revolt. The Supreme Court decision puts Obamacare right back on the public’s radar screen. It was the TARP, auto company bailouts and stimulus spending that gave rise to the Tea Party movement. In late 2009 and early 2010, the Taxed Enough Already Party was a loosely organized grassroots movement. By Election Day 2012, it had morphed into a political force that not only swept Democrats out of the House of Representatives, it ended Democrat rule in many states as well.

In 2012, Tea Party activists are now well organized. The takeover of so many state and local offices now gives Republicans a ground game they’ve never had before, and Obamacare is back on the menu.

Obama’s not only going to lose his reelection bid, it could be the biggest ass kicking since 1984.

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Non-Sports: Union households in Wisconsin handed Walker the win yesterday

You could make this statement about any group that represented a significant portion of the electorate in yesterday’s Wisconsin recall election. This is especially true when some part of that group breaks one way or the other. You need not get a majority; only enough to make the difference.

When the key voting bloc is the one responsible for having the recall election called in the first place, it’s the height of cruel political irony.

The data show that had union households marched lockstep with their leadership and rejected the Governor accused of everything but eating the firstborn children of public employee union members, Milwaukee’s Tom Barrett would be making the news show rounds and the media would be trumpeting how the election was a victory for labor, Obama and the Democrat Party.

It was not to be, however.

In the screen snippet below, The numbers for Walker are on the left, Barrett in the middle and an independent candidate on the far right.

When 100% of the precincts were in, a total of 2,496,300 votes were cast for the two candidates, with 1,334,430 going to Walker and 1,161,870 going to Barrett.

The exit poll data show that the electorate consisted of approximately 33% union households and 38% of them voted for Walker.

Doing the math: 0.33 x 0.38 x 2,496,300 = 167,338

If those voters had gone with Barrett, the outcome would have been 1,329,208 votes for the Democrat challenger and 1,167,092 for Walker, representing a nearly 180-degree difference from the actual outcome.

So, if you happen to live in the Badger State and bump into a union member today, be sure and say THANKS.

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Heartache: No “fat redneck” in the White House

Via the Daily Caller, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has decided against a run for the White House in 2012. Those of us who have worked with him in several different capacities are disappointed, but not surprised. As an organizer, manager and politician with keen instincts and a strongly conservative philosophy, Barbour’s “fat redneck” frankness and in the White House would have been a welcome and refreshing change to the deflecting incompetence we’ve witnessed over the last 25 months.

You don’t always agree with Haley Barbour, but you never fail to understand where he’s coming from, nor do you ever believe that he’s made a bad decision even under the most uncertain and trying circumstances.

Lord knows, he’s seen decision-making situations under each and both conditions.

Now that he’s officially out, his influence, his organizing skills and his fundraising capability will be some of the most sought-after commodities in the months to come. Barbour was seriously considering a run as far back as June 2010 and I wrote about those prospects here.

Barbour is credited by many observers on both sides of the aisle as being one of the chief architects of the 1994 Republican Revolution that swept Democrat majorities from both houses of Congress.  Barbour sensed blood in the water 16 years ago, and is credited with organizing a party-wide feeding frenzy that nationalized Congressional elections for the first time in the post-war era. 

In his 2003 campaign for Governor of Mississippi, Barbour beat a conservative blue dog Democrat in a campaign that the Jackson Clarion-Ledger called "relentlessly well organized."  The incumbent, Ronny Musgrove, was pro-life, anti-gay rights and wrote a letter in praise of the Alabama "Ten Commandments Judge," Roy Moore.  Musgrove would have made conservative Republicans in other states blush, but he was beaten by a machine he simply couldn't compete with in, terms of fundraising, organization or message management.

Barbour also has reputation for not launching battles he doesn’t think he can win. If he thought he had a legitimate shot at the Republican nomination for 2012, his machine would have cranked up and been running at peak RPM by the time Labor Day 2012 rolled around.

I am personally dismayed by his assessment of his chances and his ensuing decision. Yes, he is a Republican “insider.” Yes, he has an extensive network of lobbyists and other backroom dealers. But he has those assets because those are the assets you need to get business done.

I can’t wait to see who he throws the weight of the “fat redneck” network behind. It probably won’t be a loser.

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Keeping score: Sarah Palin 2, Obamacare 0 as Death Panels removed again

Via the New York Times, it appears that the Obama regime will revise a controversial Medicare regulation, removing references to end of life planning connected to the annual physicals funded under Obamacare.

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While administration officials cited procedural reasons for changing the rule, it was clear that political concerns were also a factor. The renewed debate over advance care planning threatened to become a distraction to administration officials who were gearing up to defend the health law against attack by the new Republican majority in the House.

Although the health care bill signed into law in March did not mention end-of-life planning, the topic was included in a huge Medicare regulation setting payment rates for thousands of physician services. The final regulation was published in the Federal Register in late November. The proposed rule, published for public comment in July, did not include advance care planning.

An administration official, authorized by the White House to explain the mix-up, said Tuesday, “We realize that this should have been included in the proposed rule, so more people could have commented on it specifically.”

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Maybe you remember this Facebook post by Sarah Palin, in August 2009. I frankly don’t care what you think about Sarah Palin’s politics, her qualifications for public office or her personality. One thing you can’t deny about the former Alaskan Governor, Vice Presidential Candidate, Fox News Analyst, reality show star and private citizen.

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The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

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When she can change the national debate over major legislation with a single Facebook post or Tweet from her Twitter account, you have to admit that the woman has gravitas.

It appears that the firestorm she stirred two summers ago wasn’t as much sound and fury, signifying nothing as people thought it was.

The hockey mom remains an unpredictable and formidable force in American politics.

 

What’s next for Bob Riley: A 2012 run at the White House?

Published today in the Mobile Press-Register, a story from George Talbot discussing the buzz about outgoing Alabama Governor Bob Riley’s plans for the future. Five words that accurately describe the former rancher, Alabama business school graduate, US Congressman, and two-term Governor: Folksy.  Intelligent. Capable manager. Staunch conservative. Political opportunist.

There’s one more that friends and political observers like to toss around: Reaganesque.  This one fits primarily because Riley’s political interests were sparked by the charismatic President who served from 1981 through 1988. Riley was first elected to Congress in the 1996 election, served a self-imposed three-term limit and left in 2003.

His 2002 election as Governor was by a 3,000 vote margin, the closest in the history of the state.

Riley’s reputation as a capable manager is impeccable. His handling of the Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina disasters was praised by local and federal emergency management officials, and his management of the Gulf Oil Spill crisis of 2010 was similarly lauded. To this day, Riley remains a fierce antagonist of current Oil Spill Claims Czar Kenneth Feinberg and his handling of compensation payments to affected residents and business owners.

At 66, Riley says he’s still got some “racing” in him:

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A national run for Riley, 66, would in some ways be easy. His children are grown and his schedule is open. Experts are predicting the Republican primary could swell to include a dozen or more candidates. In such a large field, the race essentially becomes a beauty contest.

Early voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina would quickly narrow the contest to three or four candidates. Make the cut, and you could be on the fast track to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

For now, however, the road leads home to Ashland.

“I’m tired. I’m ready for a break,” Riley said between meetings in New York. “Patsy told me I need to do something, or else I’ll get bored. And I told her I’d like to try doing nothing awhile and just see.”

He is tinkering with the idea of a cross-country motorcycle trip -- perhaps to Alaska -- in springtime. The long ride would allow him to clear his mind and make a decision about his future. But for now there’s still work to be done.

“I had an old track coach who taught me to run through the tape, not to it,” he said. “I’ve still got a little race left to run.”

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Wait. What? A road trip to Alaska?  What could he possibly hope to achieve by visiting Alaska?

Should Riley decide to enter the race, he’ll almost certainly be up against a formidable opponent in the form of neighboring Southern Governor, Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, whose potential 2012 run was analyzed here, back in June 2010. Or perhaps Barbour would be content to team up with Riley and use his considerable political network to give the Reaganesque Riley a leg up in the 2012 beauty contest.

 

 

Alvin Greene for President!

 Go, Alvin! GO!

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In an interview outside a Columbia, S.C. courthouse – where he was being tried for allegedly showing pornographic material to a college-aged girl – Greene said he would sue the Columbia Free-Times newspaper if he read an account of the legal proceedings.
Instead Greene suggested the media focus on his presidential potential before claiming to be the "greatest person ever."
“I’m the next president,” Greene said. “I’ll be 35 … just before November, so I was born to be president. I’m the man. I’m the man. I’m the man. Greene’s the man. I’m the man. I’m the greatest person ever. I was born to be president. I’m the man, I’m the greatest individual ever.”
According the Free-Times account, Greene's lawyers were supposed to show to court at 9:30 a.m. and still had not arrived at the court by 2:30 p.m. Greene indicated he wanted to plead "not guilty" to the charges as well as a jury trial, which Assistant Solicitor Andrew Rogers said would not begin until after the holidays.

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Why is his defense team not using an insanity plea?
Maybe it’s because he’s completely serious. Hey, he managed to not only get on the ballot for the Democrat US Senate primary, he won the nomination.  Handily.
Who’s to say he couldn’t put together a national network of fundraisers, caucus goers and primary voters and make a serious run at Obama in the 2012 primary?
Heh…

Oh My: Did George W. Bush say Sarah Palin isn’t qualified to be President?

From the New York Daily News comes this bombshell of a revelation. Given the passion of the former Alaska governor and Tea Party power broker’s followers, this is the equivalent of sticking a broom handle into a hornets’ nest.

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WASHINGTON - Two years of retirement haven't dulled George W. Bush's political zest - and President Obama and Sarah Palin are among his under-the-radar targets.

The 43rd President has told friends the ex-Alaska governor isn't qualified to be President and criticizes Arizona Sen. John McCain for putting Palin on the 2008 GOP ticket and handing her a national platform.

"Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official familiar with Bush's thinking told the Daily News.

"He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin."

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I have reservations about the accuracy of this report. While Bush and McCain are superficially friends, the two are old political rivals dating back to the 2000 Presidential primary campaign. But Bush, like his father, is unlikely to question McCain’s “manhood” by criticizing the choice of running mate, and is even more unlikely to have allowed comments questioning Palin’s qualifications to reach the public ear, whether he holds that opinion or not. Questions about the quality of the McCain 2008 Presidential campaign are equally suspect.

The 2008 election was Obama’s to lose, not McCain’s to win. It wouldn’t have mattered if McCain had a solid gold campaign staff and strategy, the mainstream media had Obama already penciled in as the 44th President of the United States. McCain’s choice of Palin for Vice President had no impact at all, if exit polling examined after the election are accurate.

This appears to be a political “false flag” operation, designed to stir up an otherwise united Republican front going into the lame duck session of Congress. While the Palinistas are guaranteed to get fired up about this, perhaps its best if few take the bait.

Bush is certain to be asked about this as he kicks off his book tour this week. Stay tuned—my best is that he denies ever making the comments and questions the source of the material.

Oh My: Obama trails Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney in 2012 hypothetical

In a new CNN/Opinion Research poll released this morning, President Barack Obama trails the two putative leaders for the GOP 2012 presidential nomination. He trails former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee by 52-44 and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by 50-45.  Those are troubling numbers so soon into the still fluid 2012 race, because both of the two top GOP hopefuls are already hitting 50% figures.  Against Sarah Palin however, Obama would win 52-44.

You have to dig a little into the CNN.com article to find the numbers, as the piece initially sounds as if Obama’s sitting well for 2012, then starts off the matchup discussions with the numbers versus Palin.

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In a possible general election showdown, Obama leads Palin 52-44 percent among all registered voters.

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"Looking ahead to 2012, it may be too early to count Barack Obama out, particularly if Sarah Palin is his opponent," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The former Alaska governor gets a lot of attention, but she is in third place when Republicans are asked to pick a presidential nominee, and in a hypothetical matchup with Obama she is arguably the weakest candidate of the top-tier GOP hopefuls."

In a hypothetical 2012 matchup, Huckabee leads Obama 52-44 percent, while Romney has a 50-45 point advantage, which is within the poll's sampling error. Obama holds a 49-47 percent margin over Gingrich.

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The poll, conducted prior to Tuesday’s midterm elections, may have some sampling bias issues.  Of the registered voters sampled, 500 identified themselves as Republican or leaning Republican and 453 as Democrats or leaning Democrat.  That’s probably oversampling Republicans a bit, so the gaudy numbers of Obama vs Huckabee and Obama vs Romney are probably a little too rosy for the GOP. But by the same token, if they are oversampling the GOP, it shows just how steep the hill is for Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.

And given the sour mood of the electorate just before the election, these results may simply reflect an attitude of “Anybody BUT Barack Obama, EXCEPT Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.”

We’ll see.  The fluidity of the 2012 candidate pool will start to solidify right after Christmas.

The de facto Chairman of the Republican Party

Interesting story in Politico today, exploring the power wielded by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

This is Politico’s second feature in two months on the man many people in the GOP regard as the de facto Chairman of the party.  The fact that a left-leaning online publication has twice tried sounding the clarion bell on Barbour means that the chattering classes are worried about him. 

They should be worried. They should be absolutely petrified. No one controls more money or has more to spend in the 2010 mid-terms than Hailey Barbour, and no one seems to have the organization or network of power players that he does.

Even if he doesn’t make a run at 2012 (more on that, later), he will have tremendous influence over GOP politics in the next three years.  From the Politico piece:

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Barbour, who runs the Republican Governors Association, has more money to spend on the 2010 elections — $40 million — than any other GOP leader around. And in private, numerous Republicans describe Barbour as the de facto chairman of the party.

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It’s not just because he controls the RGA kitty but, rather, because he has close relationships with everyone who matters in national GOP politics — operatives like Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie and other top Republicans running or raising cash for a network of outside political groups. Together, these groups are essential to Republican hopes of regaining power because Democrats are cleaning their clocks through more traditional fundraising efforts.

The political class, in particular, is consumed with Barbour’s behind-the-scenes endeavors — this week, with the $1 million he got from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Yet the reality is that Barbour has been uniquely adept at leveraging concerns about President Barack Obama into huge contributions from many others. Bob Perry, the Texas businessman who funded the Swift boat attacks in the 2004 campaigns, has given more than twice as much as News Corp.

Barbour’s stature has grown at the expense of cash-strapped, gaffe-prone Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, and he has funded his various efforts by tapping into broad dissatisfaction with Steele — at one point, Barbour complained to donors that he needs to raise even more money because Steele is stumbling. This past quarter, Barbour’s RGA actually matched the Republican National Committee in fundraising, something that hasn’t been done in at least five years and probably much longer, according to a POLITICO analysis.

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The 2010 mid-term elections represent a juicy red meat opportunity for Republicans to take back the House of Representatives, and there is even serious talk about getting the 10 seats needed to take the Senate as well.  With Barbour set to play a huge role in financing successful takeover campaigns, there will be a lot of very powerful Republicans who will likely be in his indebtedness. But there will also be a lot of new Republican office-holders in his debt, too.

When Politico ran its first piece on him in late June, the Gulf Coast was mired in the mess created by BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  The story really didn’t generate much buzz, but I blogged about it on June 28:

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Remember also that Barbour was elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee in January 1993.  He is credited by many observers on both sides of the aisle as being one of the chief architects of the 1994 Republican Revolution that swept Democrat majorities from both houses of Congress.  Barbour sensed blood in the water 16 years ago, and is credited with organizing a party-wide feeding frenzy that nationalized Congressional elections for the first time in the post-war era.  In his 2003 campaign for Governor of Mississippi, Barbour beat a conservative blue dog Democrat in a campaign that the Jackson Clarion-Ledger called "relentlessly well organized."  The incumbent, Ronny Musgrove, was pro-life, anti-gay rights and wrote a letter in praise of the Alabama "Ten Commandments Judge," Roy Moore.  Musgrove would have made conservative Republicans in other states blush, but he was beaten by a machine he simply couldn't compete with in, terms of fundraising, organization or message management.

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The chattering classes keep tossing about the same old names when it comes to speculation about who might seek the GOP nomination in 2012.  Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Pawlenty, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

None of those people have the clout Barbour does.  As I said back then, if he decides to run,  he’s going to be hard to beat.  He out-raises, out-organizes and out-works his opponents, and if the 2010 mid-terms go his way, he’ll have the entire party apparatus eating out of his hand.

Gimme some feedback in the comments.

Barbour in 2012?

There's been quite a buzz in southern political circles that not only is Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour considering a run at the White House in 2012, he's all but certain to go all in.  The former lobbyist, Republican National Committee Chairman and current governor of a dyed-in-the-wool Red State has the national political connections and fundraising apparatus to make a serious run in 2012.

A story ran in Politico last week, touching on how he's been constructing a political machine that rivals anything assembled by other potential 2012 GOP hopefuls:

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His apparatus, which has socked away hundreds of thousands of dollars this year alone, will get a major boost — as will the Barbour 2012 buzz — when the governor takes some time away from the Gulf oil spill threatening his home region’s shorelines to attend a big fundraiser Thursday for one of his three political action committees.

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Barbour's political instincts are as keen as a well-honed Mississippi Buck Knife.  During a June 6 interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News' Sunday, Barbour was asked about Barack Obama's performance in dealing with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Barbour famously replied:

“The American people will make their own judgements… Like Napoleon said, ‘Never interfere with your enemy when he’s in the process of destroying himself.’”

While the other two Republican Governors--Jindal in Louisiana and Riley here in Alabama--have pulled no punches in criticizing the federal response to the oil spill, Barbour has stayed above the fray.  The quote above aside, he has not been as vocal as his colleagues in blasting the Obama regime for its ineptitude.  Instead, he's presented a level-headed "let's work together and solve this problem" approach. 

Remember also that Barbour was elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee in January 1993.  He is credited by many observers on both sides of the aisle as being one of the chief architects of the 1994 Republican Revolution that swept Democrat majorities from both houses of Congress.  Barbour sensed blood in the water 16 years ago, and is credited with organizing a party-wide feeding frenzy that nationalized Congressional elections for the first time in the post-war era.  In his 2003 campaign for Governor of Mississippi, Barbour beat a conservative blue dog Democrat in a campaign that the Jackson Clarion-Ledger called "relentlessly well organized."  The incumbent, Ronny Musgrove, was pro-life, anti-gay rights and wrote a letter in praise of the Alabama "Ten Commandments Judge," Roy Moore.  Musgrove would have made conservative Republicans in other states blush, but he was beaten by a machine he simply couldn't compete with in, terms of fundraising, organization or message management.

If Governor Barbour makes a run at the White House in 2012, then he's doing so because it's a battle he thinks he can win. His reputation as a "super-lobbyist" is sure to make him a target, but he's overcome that in the past with a record of getting sh__t done.  Should he make a run, he'll make a formidable opponent simply because he out-raises, out-organizes and out-works his opponents.

Gimme some feedback in the comments.