It’s always a special occasion when Haley Barbour, the last of the authentic southern Good ol’ Boys, turns up at a Republican event up north. As he did Saturday night as the keynote speaker at the GOP state dinner in Columbus. From the standpoint of easy humor, Barbour is a kind of Ronald Reagan with jowls. I have close-up memories.

This time, he needed all that he could muster with feel-good circumspect as he bounded into a state where the two top Republicans are being generously touted by their handlers as potential presidential candidates in 2016. From the report I […]