Barkley Rips Polls, Runs For Governor

Scott Thill, Morphizm]
When he was a NBA superstar and MVP, Charles Barkley could always be counted on for awesome sound bites. As an analyst, he’s been paid to basically say whatever he wants on TV, and it’s usually a hoot or a gaffe. Imagine what he’ll be like as governor of Alabama?

On Monday, the former Republican Barkley told CNN’s Campbell Brown that he plans on running for governor of his home state of Alabama in 2014, at which point he will be an ornery but still fresh 51-year-old. As with his usual interviews, the always quotable hoops star also held forth on a variety of subjects, including Obama, racism, evangelicals, hypocrites, public schools, poverty and polls, which he called "absolutely useless." The reason? Racists lie.

Anybody who is racist I just I think they are an idiot. But if you ask any white person on television, they are not going to say I’m not going to — well, actually, some people have said they are not going to ever vote for a black guy, but quietly. There are some people who say yes, [who] come on television and say they would vote for a black guy who are not going to vote — they are going to vote for John McCain.

Even though polls have Obama up by comparatively wide margins, even in battleground states, Barkley thinks the election is going to be a neck-and-neck grind to the finish line. And he should know: He’s had to call close games before, and as a one-time gambling addict was willing to drop thousands of dollars on his bets.

But Barkley was most pragmatic when analyzing his own run for Alabama’s governorship. Some may think a NBA star like him may not be cut out for the job, but according to his logic, he can’t be any worse than anyone else who has failed at the job.

Brown: You are serious.
Barkley: I am, I can’t screw up Alabama.
Brown: There is no place to go but up in your view?
Barkley: We are number 48 in everything and Arkansas and Mississippi aren’t going anywhere.

Photo: University of Alabama, Birmingham