I’m really intrigued all the buzz about a possible Haley Barbour candidacy for president in 2012. He’s the affable baby-faced Governor of Mississippi, former tobacco, pharmaceutical, and utility company lobbyist who was elected to the state’s highest office partly on a platform to preserve the Stars and Bars on the state flag. Barbour recently made waves by commenting that he didn’t remember racism in Mississippi in the 1960s “as being that bad.” During his campaign for governor in 2003, he spoke at a fundraiser held by an officially racist organization called the Council of Conservative Citizens, whose Statement of Principles reads in part, “We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind.”
But as a lobbyist, Barbour also pushed causes which he will surely have to explain away if he is to have any hope of securing the GOP’s presidential nomination. In 2001, the Mexican government retained his firm, BGR Group, to lobby Congress and the White House to advocate for amnesty lite, whereby illegal immigrants could pay a fee for being undocumented, but be placed on a fast-tracked path to citizenship.
Based on what I know about Barbour, I’m pretty sure he’s not a racist. As with all politicians, he is first and foremost an opportunist. He spoke at a fundraiser held by a group that opposes “all efforts to mix the races” because he knows that there is not an insubstantial chunk of the Mississippi electorate that agrees with such sentiments. On the other hand, he lobbied for liberal immigration reforms because the Mexican government was paying him handsomely to do so. While it’s true that Barbour has previously taken a softer stance on illegal immigration than some in his party, that position is likely to harden out of necessity if he throws his hat in the presidential ring. During the race for the GOP nomination set to begin this year, we can expect the yet-to-be-determined candidates to try to out-Southern Strategy one another, as they jockey for the support of the party’s white base.
Nonetheless, Barbour has been learning the hard way that the national political scene is quite different from Mississippi politics. Praising the defunct White Citizens’ Councils of the 1960s might not ruffle any feathers in Yazoo City, but when you’re pondering a run for president, lauding pro-segregation groups can have consequences. But Barbour is an adept politician, so I’m sure he won’t have too much trouble making the transition to a national Republican figure from his origins in what Gallup just declared is the country’s most conservative state, which brings me to my next point about a possible Barbour run.
For more than seven years, Haley Barbour has been governor of a state that ranks at or near the very bottom in just about every single quality of life category humanly imaginable. No doubt Mississippi’s problems far predate Barbour’s governorship, but I’m having a difficult time fathoming just how it is that a man in charge of a state with such a low standard of living relative to the rest of the Union can be considered a serious contender for the nation’s highest office.
Let’s take a moment to review some rankings from various sources on Mississippi relative to other 49 states:
Median household income: Worst
Poverty rate: Worst
Internet access: Worst
Overall health: Worst
Obesity: Worst
Children’s Well Being: Worst
Infant mortality: Worst
K thru 12 education performance: 5th worst
Traffic fatalities: 5th worst
Percentage of population over 25 with a bachelor’s degree: 3rd worst
Convicted public officials per capita: 7th most
You get the idea, if one state had to be deemed the asscrack of America, it would be Mississippi. But there is one area that Mississippi—this most conservative of conservative states—ranks high in. That’s federal aid per capita, in which it ranks fourth, and rate of earmarks, where it comes in second. For a state filled with people who decry the big bad federal gubmint, they sure as shit have no qualms about receiving handouts from Uncle Sam.
Haley Barbour is not the reason Mississippi is in such bad shape relative to the rest of the country, but he hasn’t exactly done a whole lot in seven years to reverse his state’s fortunes. During his first year in office, Barbour succeeded in making medical malpractice reform—a frequent wet dream of Republicans—a reality. Barbour and a few other conservatives have touted Mississippi as a model in health care, even though as seen above, it is the unhealthiest state in the Union. Furthermore, health insurance premiums in the state have risen 89% since 2000, which is a common theme across the country. (I looked in vain for data on premiums since Barbour’s tort reform took effect.)
If it seems like I’m trashing Mississippi here, it’s because I am. But this is not my principal object, but rather to ask just how it is that a chief executive of state mired in a standard of living that is markedly lower than the rest of the country can be considered a serious contender in a race for president. Because I’ll be damned if I know the answer.
ps: Mississippi is also the most religious state in the country, and I must confess, I find the inverse correlation between the state’s conservatism/religiosity and it’s quality of life rankings endlessly amusing.
- Max
max.canning@gmail.com
He's a racist!
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