Haley Barbour will not run in 2012

STATEMENT OF GOV. BARBOUR

"I will not be a candidate for president next year. This has been a difficult, personal decision, and I am very grateful to my family for their total support of my going forward, had that been what I decided.

"Hundreds of people have encouraged me to run and offered both to give and raise money for a presidential campaign. Many volunteers have organized events in support of my pursuing the race. Some have dedicated virtually full time to setting up preliminary organizations in critical, early states and to helping plan what has been several months of intensive activity.

"I greatly appreciate each and every one of them and all their outstanding efforts. If I have disappointed any of them in this decision, I sincerely regret it.

"A candidate for president today is embracing a ten-year commitment to an all-consuming effort, to the virtual exclusion of all else. His (or her) supporters expect and deserve no less than absolute fire in the belly from their candidate. I cannot offer that with certainty, and total certainty is required.

"This decision means I will continue my job as Governor of Mississippi, my role in the Republican Governors Association and my efforts to elect a new Republican president in 2012, as the stakes for the nation require that effort to be successful."

Well that has to be the most sensible thing I have seen from all the establishment hopefuls. Other than party insiders, did anyone else ever get excited over the idea of "President Barbour"? 

Haley Barbour seemed best suited for elections past rather than the new political environment of today. Especially now that much of the conservative base have become activists, old school candidates like Barbour seem terribly obsolete. The current setting favors more dynamic candidates like West, Palin, Cain, Rubio or Bachmann.

Allahpundit at Hot Air thinks that Barbour took a dive to clear the way for his good buddy wimpy Mitch Daniels.

There’s a new story at WaPo this morning about the Daniels’s presidential Hamlet act in which he describes his thinking at this point as “muddled.” Barbour dropping out will help clarify things a bit since, if Daniels does run, he’s now practically guaranteed Barbour’s endorsement and fundraising help. Barbour might not make it to the White House on his own, but if he joins forces with Mitch the Knife, he could get there as VP, chief of staff, or in any number of other roles. He’s a bottom-line kind of guy, and that’d be a shrewd bottom-line calculation. Now all Daniels has to do is play ball.

Whatever the case maybe, we should be grateful that there will be one less obsolete establishment candidate in the mix.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: GovernorBarbour.com
Via: Hot Air