Texan Says Barbour Likely to Run For President

A Texas blogger speculates on a possible 2012 presidential run by Mississippi governor Haley Barbour. The article notes that in the 1980 presidential race, Barbour was Southern coordinator for ex-Texas governor John Connally, who was a close ally of Lyndon Johnson’s and later Nixon’s treasury secretary. Connally backed President Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan in 1976, when Reagan narrowly lost the Republican nomination.

Senator Thad Cochran, who also endorsed Connally in 1980, was defeated at the Hinds County GOP convention for delegate to the state convention.

Connally skipped the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, which were won, respectively, by George H. W. Bush and Reagan. With Senator Strom Thurmond’s support, Connally made his first (and last) stand in South Carolina, where Reagan pulverized him (Rudolph Giuliani in 2008 would have done well to study Connally’s 1980 strategy). Connally wound up with a total of ONE delegate, after spending $14 or $15 million.

In 1988, Barbour was mentioned as a possible candidate in the New Hampshire presidential primary.

The Yazoo countian seems to have a “thing” for Texas politicians, as he attended a presidential exploratory meeting for Governor George W. Bush in Texas in January, 1999.

If the Mississippi governor is indeed planning to run for president, it will probably be a good idea for him not to raise any more taxes or reduce the sentences of any more murderers.