The unofficial Republican field seeking the GOP nomination for President of the United States just got a bit thinner.
Former Republican National Committee chairman and current Mississippi governor Haley Barbour announced this week that he will not seek the GOP nomination for president. “I will not be a candidate for president next year,” Gov. Barbour said via his website. “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.”
Although many thought Barbour was a shoe-in to win the GOP nomination, others thought some controversial and race-tinged statements he made during an interview in late 2010, as well as not condemning plans to put a former Ku Klux Klan leader on a Mississippi license plate were enough to derail any chance he would have against the first black president.
Dan McLaughlin, an editor of the conservative blog Red State, tweeted that although Barbour could win the nomination, he’d have a hard time becoming commander-in-chief. “Fact #1: Haley Barbour may be the best potential POTUS in GOP field. Fact #2: a white man his age from MS may not be electable, as such.”
Welp. Judging by how well Haley's *possible* run for the Presidency WASN'T embraced by many SoCons (paricularly in South Carolina and elsewhere throughout the South) I'd say his "decision" to NOT run wasn't as "difficult" to make as Haley claims. IOW: He decided to NOT run because he CAN'T win.