PrairiePundit

Haley Barbour says Obama's negative campaign worked because Romney and GOP failed to respond.  The interview also wanders into the correct policy on immigration and is probably not where voters are yet on that issue despite what Democrats and the business interest say.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy Andrea Mitchell has a tough time pushing the Obama spin.

Image via Wikipedia Real Clear Politics: ... Adding more fuel to the fire, a source close to Perry's political team told RealClearPolitics on Thursday afternoon that the Texas governor is "leaning toward getting in" to the race. Two of Perry's longtime political aides, Dave Carney and Rob Johnson, were among the large group of advisers who announced Thursday that they were leaving Gingrich's team. Carney has been a top political adviser to Perry for 14 years and continues to counsel him, and Johnson managed his most recent gubernatorial campaign. Republican insiders expect that both would join a Perry presidential effort if he were to launch one. As a prominent Texan with a longtime political infrastructure, not to mention a key finance perch atop the Republican Governors Association, Perry could gear up for a race more quickly than most of the top GOP politicians eyeing a 2012 run. Though he is widely regarded as the first nationally known politician ...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife Washington Times: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Monday offered a comprehensive-sounding prescription for reversing what he said was the downward slide of the economy — and of America’s global standing. In what sounded like a preview of an expected 2012 presidential-nomination bid, the 63-year-old former Republican Party chairman gave a pointed critique of President Obama’s energy and economic policies, and raised the prospect that “within 15 years, the U.S. will be forced to borrow money from foreign governments to pay for our military” if the country did not address a series of national security challenges. “Perhaps even worse, in about five years, the amount we pay China in interest on the U.S. debt they hold will be enough to fund their entire military,” Mr. Barbour said. What are needed are the “right incentives” to induce both American and foreign businesses to invest here rather than abroad, he said. .. If Obama and the Democrat...

Image via Wikipedia Scott Conroy: ... Speaking with unbridled relish, Palin replied that opening the strategic oil reserves was not the solution to the problem and reverted to her old mantra that the government should "drill here and drill now" before going into a more in-depth criticism of the Obama administration's energy policies. "Back in '08, our U.S. crude also was trading at about $100 a barrel as it is today for about six months, and that was right before our world economy imploded," Palin said. "And now here we are back again, so [Obama's] timing - his destructive timing - of locking up 97 percent of our off-shore and not allowing ANWR to be touched, not allowing domestic drilling to take place to the degree that it should, it is terrifying where he is leading us in terms of being at the mercy of foreign regimes that would seek our demise to produce energy for us." With analysts predicting that gas prices are likely to soar ev...

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr CBS News: Out of a handful of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney fares the best in a hypothetical match-up against President Obama in a new national Quinnipiac poll of registered voters. American voters put Romney and Mr. Obama in a statistical dead heat, with Romney leading 45 percent to 44 percent. Mr. Obama also faces still competition from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the poll, with the president leading 46 percent to 44 percent -- also a statistical dead heat. The president, however, takes a strong lead in a match up against former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin , beating her 48 percent to 40 percent. Mr. Obama also trounces Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is largely unknown to voters, 45 percent to 36 percent. While Palin runs worse against Mr. Obama compared to other challengers, she nevertheless comes out on top in a hypothetical Republican primary, Quinnipiac shows. Given ...

Image via Wikipedia Melinda Henneberger: When at least four possible presidential contenders – Govs. Haley Barbour , Bobby Jindal , Tim Pawlenty and Mitch Daniels -- shared a stage at the Republican Governors Association conference Thursday morning, along with Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie , who do you think was the standout? Yes, Barbour's every word is quotable, Daniels has sewn up the David Brooks primary, and no one can say that Pawlenty doesn't present well. But if you read Politics Daily 's Jill Lawrence, you might not be surprised to learn that it was Christie who got the most applause and laughs from the crowd. What new governors can't understand, he said, is that "I don't care if you had a Democrat or a Republican before you,'' you will still be up against the same "it's never been done that way'' mindset. He told governors-elect that their own political advisers will tell them, "Let's not kick anybody yo...

Washington Post: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was Republican National Committee chairman the last time his party was at such a low, after the election of 1992. Two years later, Republicans captured control of Congress, and although Newt Gingrich, who became the new House speaker, got much of the credit, party insiders say Barbour played a major role. ... ... Barbour has refrained from commenting on Sanford's problems and, in an interview on the eve of the NGA meeting, ducked the question of whether Palin's decision to resign is a responsible action by an incumbent governor. "I am not smart enough to know whether this helps her or hurts her for 2012, or whether that's what it was focused on. I'm just ignorant of it." He paused and laughed, saying: "That's the best you're getting." ... He acknowledges that Republicans have done little to help themselves in the six months Obama has been in office. But he believes, as do others in the party,...

Washington Times: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour yesterday said that he is too conservative to be John McCain's running mate but that the Arizona senator's maverick reputation will help him in an election in which moderates and independents will be more important than in recent years. Mr. Barbour also urged Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, not to name his pick for vice president until after the Democrats' convention, when he can draw the sharpest distinction between the parties. Mr. McCain will depend on "persuasion" to snare independents and disgruntled Democrats on Nov. 4, unlike George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections when victory depended on maximizing the turnout of each party's hard-core partisans, said Mr. Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman. "I am a lot more conservative than John McCain," Mr. Barbour told The Washington Times at a luncheon meeting with the newspaper's ed...