It has been almost 10 months since the last round of speculation surrounding a potential Presidential bid by former RNC Chairman and lobbyist turned Mississippi Governor, so apparently the powers at be inside the establishment media think it's time for another round.

POLITICO has learned that Barbour is weighing the prospect of a 2012 White House bid and convened a private meeting April 8 with a group of some of his oldest and closest advisers, some of whom flew in from the East Coast to Jackson, Miss. The gathering stretched for six hours, during which time the topic of a presidential run was discussed.

There is no mention in this long-ish article from Jonathan Martin that as of the most recent polling, in the field this past fall, that nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) told Gallup that they would not seriously consider voting for Barbour for President in 2012 -- an even greater share than said the same of Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin (both of whom were ruled out by 63 percent of the public). There is also no mention of the even more recent polling, from just a few days ago, showing Barbour earning the support of just 1 percent of Republicans.

Nevertheless, with the press, and apparently some DC Republicans, taking Barbour 2012 seriously, I am reminded of a great post from Atrios back in November:

Politicians Are All From The South

This was true for so many years that the politician archetype in pop culture was always some middle aged white dude with at least a modest southern accent.

For some reason, that period just seems so outdated -- which is odd considering that 2008 was the first Presidential election since 1972 in which neither party's ticket featured at least one Southerner (and since 1944, if you count Maryland's Spiro Agnew as a Southerner, which isn't such a stretch considering the kind of role played and rhetoric used by the candidate in the 1968 and 1972 Nixon campaigns). Yet at the same time, one doesn't get the sense that the American people are itching for a return to Southern dominance of Presidential politics. Which is all to say, Barbour may be an anachronism.

Many on this blog as of late, mostly Hillary supporters, have been making the argument that it is folly for Democrats to campaign in the south, because winning southern voters is a lost cause for progressives.  I have also seen it argued that the south votes solidly Republican because of race.  I think both arguments are oversimplifications and counterproductive.
    The idea that the south is a lost cause for Democrats due to racial discrimination flies in the face of our electoral history.  Every time the Democrats have made a serious attempt at winning southern votes it has paid off electorally, but the most important step in this process is nominating someone who can communicate with southerners.
    In 1976, when we nominated Jimmy Carter, who is CLEARLY a liberal progressive (and no racist I might add), we carried every Southern state save Virginia.  This involved no selling out of our core principles or running to the middle of the road, it simply involved nominating a candidate who could connect with southern voters.  Even in 1980, when Carter had been beset by the oil crisis, the hostage crisis, etc etc, and Reagan swept the country, Carter still carried Georgia and West Virginia.
    In 1992, we ran Bill Clinton, also a solid southern communicator.  We won West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Georgia.  In 96, he carried all of those except Georgia and even won Florida over...and then comes 2000 and Gore lost every one of those states due to using the 20 state strategy.

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(Please feel free to distribute this to any Southern state bloggers you know!)

In the American South, in states like Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, and others, Democrats and Progressives face many of the same issues every election cycle. A lot of the typical "God, guns, and gays," plus abortion and other so-called "wedge issues," Republicans have made effective use of to turn the once Solid Democratic South into a Republican stronghold.

Bloggers in these states face unique challenges when it comes to framing issues and advocating for candidates in election cycles.

Recently, a new group has been started to help Southern State Bloggers "unite" and explore strategy and issue-framing options in anticipation of the 2008 election cycle: Progressvie Bloggers of the South.  

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[cross-posted on my blog at Madison For Edwards]

At the South Carolina Democratic Party Convention, on the heels of the SCSU debates from Thursday, John Edwards was the third speaker after Joe Biden and Bill Richardson.  As he was closing up his speech, which included the simple statement of why he is running for president as "so everyone in America has the same opportunities that I have had," he made a promise to the assembled delegates from the South Carolina Democratic Party.  He said that he would, as the nominee, be back to South Carolina to campaign in that state to do two things.  First, he would campaign there to win the state, and second, he would campaign there to continue to build the Democratic Party in South Carolina and in the South.  That's a bold promise, breaking the mold of our past nominees and something that bodes well for the vitality of our party nationally.

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The key races in 2007 and 2008 are already beginning to shape up with some big names choosing to and choosing not to run. Let's take a quick look at the South.

• In Kentucky, Congressman Ben Chandler, one of the first down-ticket candidates behind whom the full power of the Netroots was thrown, has decided not to run for Governor against tainted Republican incumbent Ernie Fletcher. According to Mark Nickolas of the inimitable Bluegrass Report, other Democrats potentially looking at this race (which appears to be a great pick-up opportunity for the Democrats due to Fletcher's legal woes) include former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, former congressional candidate Jack Conway, 2003 gubernatorial candidate Bruce Lunsford, and businessmen Ron Geary and Charlie Owen (Chandler's running mate in 2003). On the Republican side, incoming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is not endorsing Fletcher, who may or may not be challenged in a GOP primary by Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, outgoing U.S. Rep. Anne Northup and State Rep. Scott Brinkman.
  
• In Alabama, Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, an African-American lawmaker, is considering a challenge to incumbent Republican Senator Jeff Sessions. As of the end of September, Sessions' warchest was about six times larger than that of Davis, with the Republican holding about $1.5 million on hand and the Democrat holding about $250,000. While Sessions is reliably conservative, in fact ranking as the most conservative member of the Senate in 2005 according to National Journal, Davis is no liberal, scoring a 39.2 conservative rating (out of 100) placing him to the right of Republican Jim Leach and all but 32 other Democratic Congressmen. Nonetheless, this still may be a race to watch in the coming months.
  
• In Georgia, former Democratic Senator Max Cleland has decided against seeking a rematch against freshman Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss. Cleland was widely considered to be the Democrats' best hope in the race, which would have still been a tough -- probably even uphill given trends in the state and the region. According to the Associate Press report linked to above, Democrats still thinking about the race may include "Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones and state office-holders such as Secretary of State Cathy Cox."

Update [2006-12-1 18:23:4 by Jonathan Singer]: Evan Bayh is also edging towards moving "in", in this case forming a presidential exploratory committee as early as next week.

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