Source:Hoover Institution– Uncommon Knowledge With Peter Robinson.
“In 2003 Haley Barbour was elected governor of Mississippi, becoming only the second Republican governor since Reconstruction. In 2007 he won reelection to a second and final term. Since June of last year, Governor Barbour has served as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
Will the GOP recapture the House once again this year? The Senate? How many of the 37 gubernatorial races will the GOP win? Haley Barbour offers his political insights on the November elections. He further describes why he believes that Barack Obama represents “the biggest lurch to the left in American political history,” and responds to where he’d like to see the Republican Party stand on issues ranging from Obama Care and immigration to the Ground Zero mosque. Finally, he analyzes his own prospects as a presidential candidate in 2012 and the chances that he will run.”
From the Hoover Institution
Governor Haley Barbour is right for the GOP and I’m not sure he would put it this way and I don’t pretend to speak for him, but for the GOP to have any shot at winning back the White House in 2012, they are going to have to nominate a presidential nominee that at least part of their vast base has issues with. Thats the only way they are going to win the White House in 2012.
This means nominating someone who is yes an economic conservative, but someone who’s probably not a Neo-Conservative, when it comes to foreign policy and national security. And someone who’s not a Christian-Conservative (or any other Religious-Conservative) like in the case of Mitt Romney who at least at one point was pro-choice on abortion and homosexuality and introduced civil unions in Massachusetts to America back in 2003-04.
The problem with Mitt Romney is that economic conservatives don’t like him because of his health Care law that looks a lot like the Affordable Care Act of 2010. So thats why Tim Pawlenty is a viable alternative to Governor Romney because he’s an economic conservative who at least to this point hasn’t pushed a Christian-Conservative agenda in his presidential campaign.
Which is why candidates like Rick Santorum, Michele Bachman, Sarah Palin who has a laundry list of other issues, which is why she’s not a credible candidate, but why these other candidates aren’t serious contenders at this point, because they push the Christian-Conservative agenda real hard and look intolerant. And why they would never beat President Obama in 2012.
Christian-Conservatives in the GOP really belong in their own fringe Far- Right party and not in a major political Party like the GOP.
And if the Republican Party ever gets back to its Conservative-Libertarian roots of limited government and moves away from this authoritarian route they’ve been on for twenty years now, they’ll be a major player in American politics and a ruling majority party that could compete anywhere in the country, not just in the Bible Belt. And compete with the Democratic Party in all racial, ethnic, and religious groups.
The Daily Times 