Haley Barbour: Make the 2016 About Issues, Not Obama's Personal Traits

The debate over President Barack Obama should concentrate on his policies, not his personal traits, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, an ex-chairman for the Republican National Committee, said Sunday.

"We want to be talking about policy," Barbour told NBC's "Meet the Press." " We want to be talking about results. That's our strength. That's Obama's weakness. His bad policies are producing bad results."

Barbour said that during the weekend's governor's conference, Democratic governors were speaking about the "weakest recovery since World War II ... we're talking about the lack of confidence of the future of the country. That wasn't the case ten years ago. It is the case now."

And that is the issue where Republicans should be focused, "not on personal characteristics," said Barbour, who chaired the RNC while Bill Clinton was president.

"We never talked about Clinton personally," Barbour maintained. "We never talked about anything except Clinton's policies."

And when it comes to personal attacks, Barbour called former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who stirred debate this past week with his comments about doubting Obama loves America a "great mayor and hero in a terrifically hard time on Sept. 11," but said it is "up to him" whether he wants to apologize for his comments.

But he said he would not characterize Obama the way Giuliani has.

"I think the problem with Barack Obama is his policies," said Barbour. "Bad policies produce bad results and that's what we all want to talk about. The Democrats are loving not having to talk about that. They were talking about Rudy Giuliani until the cows come home."

Further, Barbour said, Giuliani's statements are being fed by "people who want to change the subject," but potential GOP candidates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have made the point that the talk should be about policies.

Barbour also commented on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's response to reporters who asked him if he thinks Obama is a Christian, to which Walker replied that it was not up to him to say. Later in the day, Walker's office issued a clarification, saying that he does believe Obama is a Christian.

"Scott Walker had a great record as governor of Wisconsin," said Barbour. "He's won three times in four years in a tough state. He shares with Chris Christie, the fact he's won in a state that is hard for Republicans to win in. He shouldn't take debate on this stuff. I don't think it is any kind of glaring problem."

But he doesn't think Obama's race was the reason for such a question, as host Chuck Todd said people are suggesting.

"I would bet a higher percentage of African-Americans in the United States are Christians than are whites," said Barbour. "I mean, of course, I come from a place where I'm very familiar with that. Very religious leaders, very powerful leaders in the black community of my state. There are good Christians. So I don't get the race question about Christianity."

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