March 22, 2011. Jackson, MS. Haley Barbour.

You first noticed him after Katrina.  Mississippi got cleaned up and cleaned out and re-built long before any other gulf states and you suspected that Haley Barbour was the reason.  You also knew immediately, that while other States with devastated coasts  continued to bicker and complain, Haley Barbour, as the Governor of Mississippi got down to work and formed committees and began the fix-up.  But living in Washington, D.C., you heard nothing about the re-building in Mississippi.  All you continued to see was the mess in New Orleans, where years after the disaster, the mess was still with the citizens of Louisiana.  It took a new Governor to complete the job.

We knew a bit about him before Katrina.  Living in the Washington area and being a Republican, you knew how successful he was as the head of the National Republican Committee but you needed to be a Republican to know it.

Then we moved to Mississippi two years ago part time and we saw the coast with the work that had been done and you noted that Haley Barbour was the head of the Republican Governors Association and you wondered what Haley will do next.  Everyone speaks well of him here and everyone seems to know him.  Now the good folks of Jackson are wondering if he will run for President.  They correctly list his issues as a candidate:  his accent which is more southern the further he moves north, his lack of interest growing up in the sixties civil right issues in Mississippi, his success as a lobbyist in Washington and perhaps his living in Mississippi.  Folks here think he will never get the nomination.

But what he does bring to the table is  success at every level of his career.   He has been a great Governor and would be a good President too.  We will see.