Something bugs me about Haley Barbour as a potential GOP nominee. Besides the obvious, I think part of it is that old Southern men really don't fit the image anyone has of Presidents.
Obviously, I checked Wikipedia to see if this could be borne out. And indeed, Haley Barbour would be 65 in 2012, and this is older than any serious Southern presidential candidate since 1844 - the only two older in American history are Henry Clay, who was 67 when he ran against Polk that year, and Andrew Jackson, who was 67 when he ran for reelection in 1832. LBJ always looked old, but he was 56 in 1964; and the shriveled Ross Perot was 62 in 1992.
Even knowing how the South's national political power was greatly restricted after the Civil War, it's striking, looking over the records, how thoroughly and how long Southerners were kept out of consideration for the presidency since then. It's hard to say who the first post-Civil War Southern president was, because so many technicalities come up. Woodrow Wilson was born in Georgia, but he made his academic career in the North and entered politics in New Jersey. Harry Truman was from Missouri, which is sort of half-Southern, and I'm not sure about his identity, but that certainly wasn't his image. LBJ and Carter were the first completely unambiguous Southerners, and if we can give George W. Bush that label (he might have been a transplant or fraud, but he had the accent and the identity), then he was the first conservative Southern president since the Civil War, despite the consistent conservatism of the South. One gets the impression that until recently, being Southern was an inherent minus, needing to be countered by other political assets.
Obviously, I checked Wikipedia to see if this could be borne out. And indeed, Haley Barbour would be 65 in 2012, and this is older than any serious Southern presidential candidate since 1844 - the only two older in American history are Henry Clay, who was 67 when he ran against Polk that year, and Andrew Jackson, who was 67 when he ran for reelection in 1832. LBJ always looked old, but he was 56 in 1964; and the shriveled Ross Perot was 62 in 1992.
Even knowing how the South's national political power was greatly restricted after the Civil War, it's striking, looking over the records, how thoroughly and how long Southerners were kept out of consideration for the presidency since then. It's hard to say who the first post-Civil War Southern president was, because so many technicalities come up. Woodrow Wilson was born in Georgia, but he made his academic career in the North and entered politics in New Jersey. Harry Truman was from Missouri, which is sort of half-Southern, and I'm not sure about his identity, but that certainly wasn't his image. LBJ and Carter were the first completely unambiguous Southerners, and if we can give George W. Bush that label (he might have been a transplant or fraud, but he had the accent and the identity), then he was the first conservative Southern president since the Civil War, despite the consistent conservatism of the South. One gets the impression that until recently, being Southern was an inherent minus, needing to be countered by other political assets.
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