On Monday, Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi visited Iowa, which will hold the nation’s first presidential contest in less than a year.
The visit, which included private discussions with Iowa’s governor and other state leaders, was not announced beforehand and suggested that Mr. Barbour remained serious about the possibility of running for president. In brief comments to reporters, he said he would make a decision in April.
“There’s a lot that enters into it,” Mr. Barbour told reporters at Iowa’s Statehouse. “I have been political director of the White House under Ronald Reagan, and I understand what I’m getting into. I’m 63 years old and this is a 10-year commitment if you run and get elected, you’re committing yourself for re-election and so you’ve got to be prepared for a 10-year commitment and that’s the majority of the rest of my productive life.”
Mr. Barbour, a former Washington lobbyist, remains one of more than a dozen leading Republicans who are flirting with a presidential campaign. A former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mr. Barbour has said he is seriously considering it.
If he does enter the race, Iowa will figure prominently into his strategic calculations. The state typically holds its presidential caucus prior to any other state contest. And the Republican Party will conduct a straw poll for its contenders in August of this year.
When asked what on his résumé qualified him to be president, Mr. Barbour said, “You know, governor is the job in the United States and in the world that is the closest job to being president.”
Click here to listen to the audio of Mr. Barbour’s exchange with reporters.