Haley for Pres?

James Pinkerton has an article in Newsday in which he speculates about
the viability of a Haley Barbour Presidential bid.  Pinkerton notes:

Some Barbourites are actively tooting Haley's horn. Ed Rogers, a White House aide to Presidents Reagan and Bush 41 and a past campaigner for Bush 43, was Barbour's law partner until Barbour was elected governor in 2003. In talking up the Mississippian's credentials, Rogers recalls that Barbour was the political director of the Reagan White House before going on to chair the Republican National Committee when the GOP took over Congress in 1994. As governor, Rogers continues, Barbour has enacted sweeping tort reform and held the line on taxes and spending. "A lot of Washington Republicans seem to have forgotten the importance of fiscal discipline," Rogers adds, signaling the "outsider" edge of a possible Barbour candidacy.

And indeed, others in the limited-government wing of the party are high on Haley. Grover Norquist, the Republican/libertarian strategist, is neutral in the '08 race but nonetheless volunteers, "Haley is a Reagan Republican's dream. He has Friedrich Hayek in his library and Lee Atwater and Karl Rove in his veins." That is, Barbour combines the book smarts of a famed free-market economist with the street smarts of leading political operatives.

Only time will tell, but don't be surprised to see a Barbour bid in a few years.  In my own estimation, he has the political savy, the good-ole-boy charisma, the experience, and enough knowledge of economic and domestic policy to have a legitimate shot--especially considering how uncertain the current GOP field is for '08. Personally, I would love to see a Mississippian be a serious contender for the Presidency.