HALEY BARBOUR'S LOBBYING: THIS IS A PROBLEM WITH GOP VOTERS WHY EXACTLY?

As Haley Barbour contemplates a run for the GOP presidential nomination, The New York Times tells us he's defending his lobbying career -- but wow, he is really going about it all wrong:

... rather than running away from his background, he is embracing it.

A lobbyist? Well, he knows how to promote an agenda.....

Not only does Mr. Barbour make no apology for his work as a corporate lobbyist or try to steer attention to other areas of his résumé, he raises the subject himself and wraps it in folksy packaging. He tells audiences the experience allowed him to learn all facets of government, pausing to amplify his point in a slow drawl: "I saw the sausage factory up close." ...

No, no, no -- that's not what you say if you want to appeal to modern Republican voters.

Here's what you say: I stood up for embattled capitalists. That's what would speak to the teabaggiest GOP voters. These folks love big-ass capitalism. They love corporate personhood. They think horrors like campaign finance reform are a massive threat to the delicate flower that is free enterprise. Go here and read some of the ecstatic reactions of teabaggers when the Citizens United ruling came down. My favorite:

...Think for a minute if it makes sense for AARP or ACORN, both of which operate as businesses, to invest in political discussion while others like Ford Motor Co., Apple, UnitedHealthcare, or Walmart may not. Doesn't Ford have a right to complain about their two primary domestic competitors being given government largesse? Doesn't Apple have a right to weigh in on net neutrality or protection of intellectual property? Doesn't UnitedHealthcare have the right to its views on Obamacare? ...

Our Galtian heroes are under siege! Someone must come to their defense!

That's what Barbour should say. But he simply doesn't speak teabag. So just as he doesn't know that his response to attacks on his racial pronouncements should be to blame the media (the 'baggers would eat that up), he doesn't know that he should talk about his lobbying career as if he was heroic. It would really work.