Mark McKinnon floats the idea in his column over at The Daily Beast today. McKinnon predicts that Obama would be re-elected if things remain the way they are now, but notes that a continued recession or foreign policy crisis can send voters looking, once again, for change. And when voters seek change following an unpopular presidency, they don’t seek moderate change — they seek the polar opposite of the incumbent. Haley Barbour would be one option.

Barbour has had an impressive career. He was political director in the Reagan White House, headed the Republican National Committee while the GOP gained control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1954, and is a two-term governor of Mississippi. In the latter position, he has been praised for his leadership through disasters, cut the state’s deficit without raising taxes, implemented tort reform, enacted tough anti-abortion laws, and sought overall fiscal responsibility.

McKinnon also notes Barbour’s political expertise:

And Barbour is a consummate campaigner. He has a finely tuned understanding of American politics. A big talent. Highly literate. Raised by a single mom. And never failed at anything he’s tried.

And the best thing he’d have going for him is that his opposition would not take him seriously.

They’d do so at their own peril. Barbour is politically bright, a fiscal and social conservative, successful governor, noted leader through dark times, and could win support from the Republican primary voters in addition to general election voters.

The only stumbling block is that he was once a registered lobbyist. But hey, if a man who spent years in an anti-American, antisemitic church can get elected during a year of “change”, why not a former lobbyist? It’s not like Barbour’s firm was printing Hamas terror manifestos.