Here’s what I just wrote on Politico Arena about the effect of Haley Barbour’s comments in the Weekly Standard about the issue of race in his hometown:

It was always hard to take Barbour’s presidential aspirations seriously, but this incident would seem to rule him out entirely. The controversy over the Weekly Standard article may be a two-day story, but it creates a pretext for deeper coverage of his questionable history with race. That dynamic hurt George Allen after the macaca incident, and it is likely to do the same to Barbour. Even playing the victim card will only take him so far.

In addition to the link above on Barbour’s past history with race, see also here.