Haley Barbour: 2010 is Looking Better Than 1994

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is a very sharp political guy and former RNC chief.  He's liking what he's seeing right now:

The man who ran the Republican National Committee in 1994 when the GOP retook both chambers in Congress says the environment in this midterm election year is better than it was 16 years ago.


“The political environment for Republicans this first half of April, 2010, is better than it was the first half of April 1994,when we won 54 seats in the House, took control of the House, the Senate, [and] more than 30 governorships,” Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.


Barbour told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley that Republicans would again retake control of the House and the Senate if the election were held now. “The problem is the election is not today,” he explained.


Explaining his comparative analysis of 2010 and 1994, Barbour also told Crowley that the favorable environment in 1994 “developed later, developed in a little bit different way.”


“The people in this country are very agitated,” Barbour said of the current political environment, “Republicans are energized. And independents are talking like, thinking like, and planning to vote like Republicans.”


In addition to being a former RNC chairman, Barbour is the current chairman of the Republican Governors Association and is considered one of the most influential members of the GOP as the party regroups following its losses in the 2008 elections.

Given what Barbour has done in Mississippi in helping rebuild that state in the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Barbour would be a great guy to have as president. Unfortunately the Mississippi drawl could make his election difficult in those areas of the country that associate a Southern drawl with a lack of education...you know, the areas that thought Obama was so smart because he could give a good speech.