(CNN) - The chairman of the Republican Governors Association used his speech at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association Friday to rally support not for gun rights, but for energized involvement in this year's midterm elections.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told conservatives at the gathering that they should not have their sights set on 2012 as the time to retake political control of the country. Instead, Barbour said, conservatives should focus on 2010.
"This year's an enormous election," Barbour told the gathering of 2nd Amendment rights activists.
Although the anti-incumbent, anti-Washington mood of the country would seem to help conservatives and the GOP in the next six months, Barbour warned conservatives not to become complacent.
Related: Speakers at NRA convention target Washington, midterms
"I want to remind you that this election is not until November – that it is not a foregone conclusion that we're going to win," he said. "It is not foreordained that everybody who is for us today is going to be for us in November. Or that everybody who is for us today is actually going to vote in November."
So, Barbour told the gathering, that he had one message for them.
"We can't wait 'til 2012 to start taking our country back," the former chairman of the Republican National Committee said to applause. "This year's election is the election that matters."
Barbour noted that 37 governorships will be decided in November along with the congressional midterm elections.
He added, "These elections matter enormously and they will set the field, the tone for the 2012 election. We've got to start winning now to start getting our country turned back around."
Echoing many of the criticisms conservatives have leveled at the Obama administration and the Democratically-controlled Congress, Barbour slammed the amount of federal spending that has occurred at Democrats hands in the past 16 months. He implored the gathering to focus on electing officials in November who support conservative policies that would lead to more limited government, less taxes, less spending, and a more "rational" approach to regulation.
And Barbour, who lead the RNC when the GOP took control of Congress in the 1994 midterms, also said Friday that he thought the political environment in 2010 was better than it was 16 years ago.
From CNN Politics
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Who are you gonna vote out
or vote in ?
Have you seen the drab choice
between Rep. and dem. ?
Never before in the history of
America have we needed a third
party more.
The two parties we have are so
polarized and out of touch with
Americans it's pathetic.
Being a representative was never
supposed to be a career. It was
supposed to be an opportunity
to serve the people.
We need TERM LIMITS AND A THIRD
PARTY !
As Obama said yesterday. These guys ran the country into a ditch, did all in their power to obstruct the tow truck pulling back onto the road, and then want the keys back. NO!
The conservatives had their way when Bush pushed thru the GOP wish list dating back to Nixon. For almost 30 yrs the rich got their tax cuts and deregulation. We saw the results in the Oct crash.
The puppetmasters working GOP strings are corrupt, greedy, looters. They looted pension funds and retirement savings for millions of real Americans. They keep saying we're at war. What do they do to looters in wartime? A few extra % in taxes on what they stole is letting the SOB's off easy.
By the way, we took back the country for REAL Americans in November. GOP wins, the USA loses just as it did with Bush/Cheney.
The ones who's negligence resulting in 9/11.
Right! This administration and all manipulative, obfuscating politicians will learn that arrogantly playing God is a dangerous game.
I am a gun (multible) owner and an Independent. I do not see what the current administartion is doing that endangers my right to own guns. What I do see, are politicians ranting about things that are not true hoping that someone will believe what they are saying. I pray that we the citizens of the United States of America can get hold of ourselves and see the facts. The real facts and very possibly not what these politicians and pundits are trying to sell us. And a "sales" pitch is exactly what most of it is.
Just what do republicans mean by "take our country back"?? Even if they don't like the current policies, this is not just their country. It has a nasty undertone to it is statements like this that continue to divide this country. It is ridiculous!
I'm sick of this "taking our country back" crap, it's more like: taking our country backwards to the failed Bush policies. Give me a break
I' am so sick and tired of these fat, gassbag rednecks talking about "taking the country back."
Who the hell does he think he is?
America belongs to ALL AMERICANS.
Mr. Barbour spent 20 years as a lobbyist. He has learned the lesson well, "just tell them what they want to hear", whether it is the truth or not. Protect the Party of No, in this case. We gave this party 10 years to lead, and they didn't, they lied! Why would we want to give these same GOP leaders another chance? War, economic disaster, oil spill because of their rigged regulation, and moral implosion. They lie!Marlene in Mich
Old, White, Fat, Gray, Pale and Stale.........
The old time 18th century type of Politician.
It's the 21st century, we are a diverse country,
we need all ethnic groups and all colors
representing us.
The fat old geezer and his way of thinking have got to go.
What a puke, what a gross person.
Good riddance to Barbour and all the rest who share his disgusting
confederate racist thoughts!!!!!
What country would Mr. Barbour like to take back? The country where civil rights organizers like Goodman, Cheyney and Schwerner were brutally murdered? The era of Bull Conner and his police dogs brutalizing civil rights demonstrators? The era where the clan used to terrorize minorities?
Mr. Barbor is right. The 2010 election is important. A good turnout by Democrats and Independents, along with a few moderate GOP moderates will drive these demogogues back into the hole that they crawled out of.
They just don't seem to grasp that America is just not that in to angry old white guys anymore. The party of No (ideas, morals, values, common sense) is the party of the past. See ya.
That's true. We have to stop the effort at dictatorship, this year.
I keep waiting for someone to tell me WHO are we taking the country back FROM? I though we were all Americans–guess not. Just out of curiosity, when was the country taken? How was it taken? Surely not in an election!!
Guns + South + anger + ignorance = VIOLENCE
Jesus taught us what?
Yeah, let's take our country back. Take our country back to the good ole days when gas was 4.00 a gallon. Back to the good old days when we sending our kids to Iraq to die in a war that never should have been declared. Back to the good old days when congress was spending billions on a war that nobody wanted. Back to the good ole days when we had a president who couldn't put a sentence together and was elected twice! If that is taking our country back you can try to take it back...........from my cold dead hands.
Including the soon to be blackened beaches of Mississippi.
Maybe Haley can help clean up his party's oily mess.
The first thing the GOP has to do is resolve its internal schism between traditional Republicans and neo-cons–and as far as I'm concerned, that means getting rid of the bible-thumping, big-government, big-spending, authoritarian, bigoted, self-righteous, neo-cons. These people basically stole the name of the Republican Party, ruining it, and trashed its original principles.
The Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee sorts are far more interested in imposing tenets of the christian bible on everyone than they are in keeping government small, within budget, and out of people's lives, and I'm just not about to vote for anyone who so thoroughly offends me as to think that way.
(Nor, however, am I about to vote for a kill-the-economy-with taxes Democrat, especially of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid sort whose contempt for the ability of the American people to make their own decisions approaches absolute.)
"OUR COUNTRY"; now we know what they think of anyone who is not THEM & whether THEY believe America is for EVERYONE. Such hypocrites. And THEY have the nerve to wrap themselves in the flag.
He better worry about the coast of his state and not the elections. You can tell where the Republican's heads are. Not with the people but with their own power grab>
ENOUGH!!!! Ex Texan here
So....even though the Obama administration has made NO recommendations for ANY legislation that would limit the rights of gun owners.....are we now to understand that the NRA has a vested interested in actively participating in a campaign to defeat Obama and other Democrats in the upcoming election?
Exactly what is the position of the NRA on healthcare, global warming, public education, the war in Iraq, controlling nuclear arms proliferation, etc?
And, by the way...WHY IN GOD'S GREEN EARTH SHOULD NRA MEMBERS CARE WHAT THE NRA THINKS ABOUT THESE OTHER ISSUES?
"We can't wait 'til 2012 to start taking our country back," the former chairman of the Republican National Committee said to applause
Seems that the GOP is bent on taking the country backwards
Go you guys, vote!!!
Take our country back from what?????????????????/
awaitingliberalizationbyCNN May 14th, 2010 2:50 pm ET
You know what is really ridiculous, is this president, who has never done an honest day's work and has no real experience in anything
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From the way you express yourself I would venture to say that CNN is not the ONLY entity holding you captive. There are tried and proven methods that will "set you free". Seek them, start with the truth.
Right...........You guys need to take back control...WHY? You did such a wonderful job destroying the country, saying NO to any new idea and Oh yeah........Drill Baby Drill............Get ready for that "oil sheen" to wipe out your wildlife and marshes.......Yep, we need to vote for more Repubs.....NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!