When your wife is adamantly a ‘No Go’ and not just a casual reluctant then it’s time to hang it up or destroy your marriage by dragging them into the Fray of a presidential run which is a animal of a run like no other
“What’s interesting about Barbour and (to some extent) Huckabee is their reluctance to run. Maybe it’s a warning sign that things are even worse than we think.”
I think the opposite is true. They can read the writing on the wall. I think they know that they are unelectable. A couple of cycles ago maybe, but they know the mood of the conservatives is going to rule the day, as it did in the mid-terms. I also think they know they would be targeted by the Tea Party for defeat. Maybe 2 different motivators at work here. I don’t trust Huckster as far as I can throw him, but I do think Barbour is a genuinely good man, has been an excellent Governor, and doesn’t want drag his family through what Sarah has already been through, and what Huckabee wouldn’t have to because the press would love him as the candidate.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Barbour is a West style Conservative, but I know the press would try and destroy him because of their political, and non-political biases.
Maybe they realize the ‘optics’ of a white southern conservative running against Obama were a bit harsh.