Back in 2004, I complained often about the way journalists would wonder whether John Kerry was electable, given that he was a "Massachusetts liberal," and also that nobody blanched when George W. Bush made fun of Kerry's home state, as he often did, yet Kerry wouldn't dare mock Texas. There is a broad assumption that places where there are a lot of Republicans are the "real America," full of strong families and good values, worthy of respect and tribute, while places where there are lots of Democrats are festering sewers of iniquity, worthy of little but scorn and contempt.
But 2012 could see an exception, if the candidacy of Haley Barbour actually catches on. Matt Yglesias says, "To nominate a right-wing politician from a state that’s a byword for the failures of conservative governance would be pretty odd, especially when there's an orthodox conservative governor of Minnesota on offer as an alternative. But, hey, weird things happen."
If Barbour were to actually be the nominee, we could actually see the first full-throated Demcoratic attack on a Republican's home state in memory. Back in 1992, a Saturday Night Live debate parody had Bill Clinton proclaiming proudly that Arkansas had just passed Mississippi to become 49th in the nation in literacy and 41st in the prevention of rickets; we'd be seeing an awful lot of those kind of jokes. They might get called out for disrespecting the South, but I can't see Democrats being able to resist listing all the ways -- economically, educationally, etc. -- in which Mississippi brings up the rear.
Barbour's problem is that he reinforces pretty much every stereotype anyone has about Mississippi. He's a portly, cigar-chomping former tobacco lobbyist with an absurdly thick drawl who keeps getting caught characterizing Jim Crow as the good old days. The Boss Hogg comparisons are not going to be easy to shake off. Yet weirdly, he actually seems serious about running.
