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Barbour on '12 Run: 'We've Begun to Talk About It' (And Daniels? 'I'm Thinking')

1 year ago
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Melinda Henneberger
Melinda Henneberger
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SAN DIEGO -- At the final news conference of the Republican Governors Association conference here, a nervous (and beautiful) young reporter addressed her question to the "president" instead of the governor – but which governor?

"Hopefully someday you will be president,'' she corrected herself, and now all six men in blue shirts sitting at the dais were waiting to see which of them she meant: Was it Mississippi's Haley Barbour, maybe, or Indiana's Mitch Daniels? (Nope, it was actually . . . Michigan's governor-elect, Rick Snyder, which prompted a huge laugh from the others.) "Can you move to Ohio and cover me?" Gov.-elect John Kasich asked her.
The old joke that every U.S. senator looks in the mirror and sees a president also applies to governors, and at least four current Republican ones -- Barbour, Daniels, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty -- are said to be mulling a run in '12. The RGA's new chairman, Rick Perry, was on the list, too, until he accepted the job this week.
Barbour has stopped denying that he's thinking about it and meeting with potential supporters: "I said quite honestly a few hundred times that I wasn't giving it any thought until after Nov. 2," he said, but now that the midterms are over, "We've begun to talk about it to some people whose opinions I respect.''

As to what he'd have to do to make a run, he said, "My instinct tells me probably in January'' of '12, "you'd better have $40 or $50 million'' in the campaign coffers. "And my 42 years in politics says the earlier you get in, the earlier you start spending it,'' so it might be better to hang on a minute before jumping into the race.
Related: Chris Christie's Advice to GOP Governors Brings Down the House
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Have there been a lot of those conversations in San Diego? "People have been very gracious coming up and talking to me about it,'' yes. But there's a lot to think about, Barbour said. "This is all-consuming, and running's the easy part; do you want to give 10 years of your life" if you win two terms? "I'm 63 years old; am I going to spend the rest of my useful life essentially doing nothing but this?"
When I asked whether he thought his experience as a lobbyist was much of a liability should he decide to run, his smile disappeared, though it's hardly a new question, and he answered just as he has in the past: "We'll see; I'm a lawyer, a politician and a lobbyist; that's the trifecta. But here's the one that oughta run,'' he said, motioning toward Daniels, who was standing nearby.
"We're gonna cut the cards for it,'' Daniels said, and Barbour finished the thought: "And the loser has to run.''
When I asked Daniels how serious he was about running, he said, "I'm thinking, but not thinking much'' at this point, though Obama right now, he said, "wouldn't win today against any conceivable opponent.''
Kasich, who just got a new job and so is not considering another, gave a more measured appraisal of his party's chances in '12: "If this economy stays moribund,'' he said, Obama "is not going to be re-elected. And if the economy does turn around, he'll be tough to beat.''

Even if he does turn it around, will they want to admit it? On the same day that Obama was touting the bailout of the auto industry as a success story – General Motors had one of the largest initial public offerings in history, and taxpayers are now expected to recoup their investment – the governors at the news conference were asked for their view of GM's turnaround. Michigan's Snyder said that while "I don't believe in bailing out a particular company,'' he does feel that without intervention, the entire U.S. auto industry would have crashed. Daniels, however, disagreed: "We'll never know if it would have crashed or not. Yeah, there would have been dislocations but there would have been anyway. I hope we've got a better industry than we would have had, but we'll never know.''


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Filed Under: Republicans, 2012 President, Governors
Tagged: bobby jindal, fundraising, Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, republican governors, republican governors association, Tim Pawlenty
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9 Comments

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jbw1948

Bonbon:you-mean-2016

November 19 2010 at 1:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bonbon

it'll be Hillary vs Sarah in 2012.

November 19 2010 at 1:08 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Bonbon's comment
jbw1948

2016!!!

November 19 2010 at 1:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jbahllywd2

There's not a one among the Republicans that is Presidential material, and that includes Madame Grizzly, who has become the butt of FOX News jokes.

November 19 2010 at 11:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to jbahllywd2's comment
MAC MCCLOUD

Well there's not one in the white house either.

November 19 2010 at 1:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
PAMELA S

.....As I read that Mitch Daniels is "thinking about it". I am in wait and just waiting. They say that in politics, there is scandle. I have the court documents, police reports, paper work, letters to Daniels, The State of Indiana, letters to the current Governor's Attorney General, Steven Carter; Senators, as well. Yes there is scandle alright, I am just waiting for the audience, The United States of America. If he (Daniels)runs,I will have my audience finally and "people that will finally listen to me", and other women. Thank you Pamela S.

November 19 2010 at 2:37 AM Report abuse -5 rate up rate down Reply
joe

I don't agree that if the economy turns around Obama will be tough to beat. I always thought that once Obama was defeated that the economy would immediately take off because of Obama's anti business agenda. The numbers are starting to look better now and I believe that is due to the expected Democrat loss in the November elections and the weakening of Obama's power to enact cap and trade and tax increases on business. All the Republicans would have to do is remind the voters how the economy started to heal once the Democrats lost the House.

November 18 2010 at 11:00 PM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to joe's comment

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