(If you haven’t been following the story, catch up here.)

If not in the primary than the general election. It doesn’t matter what Barbour actually said. It doesn’t matter what he was trying to say. It doesn’t matter if the quote attributed to him is completely made-up. Doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that the narrative has been set: Republicans, angry over a black man being in the White House, have nominated a southern racist to try to take it back for white people. If you want to stand up to regressive white racists who want to bring slavery back, vote Barack Obama in 2012.

The media will try this with every Republican candidate, of course, but not every candidate will have maybe-he-did-maybe-he-didn’t quotes attributed to him. Not every candidate will have to explain what he actually meant when he said what he said.

2012 is going to be a deciding election. If Obama wins again, woe be unto the cause of limited government. Republicans will need to nominate an individual who is both reliably conservative (I’m not calling for a RINO) and someone without a terribly controversial past. We’ll need to maximize our chances of winning, and that means not taking unnecessary risks.

I like Haley Barbour, and I don’t believe for a moment that he’s racist. Furthermore, I’m tired of racial outrage from the party that defended Senator Robert “KKK” Byrd (D-WV) until his last day on Earth.

But we face what we face: A far-left media that will throw it all in to keep Obama in office. And we can’t afford to hand the media free ammunition.