Barbour's Drawl Gets New Hampshire Debut

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour tours Riley’s Gun Shop in
Hooksett, N.H., this month.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — He is not like them. And the breakfast crowd at Chez Vachon knows it the instant Haley Barbour opens his mouth.

It’s not that they haven’t met Southern politicians before. Or that they don’t recognize the oddly shaped pin on his lapel as the state of Mississippi. The people of New Hampshire have been courted by politicians of all shapes and sizes over the years. It’s just that very few of them have encountered an accent quite like this.

“I noticed it, absolutely. You notice it,” said Jim Waddell, a state Representative from Hampton. He’s a one-time jogging partner of President Bill Clinton and recently shared breakfast here with Barbour. “Some people might say, ‘Ah, that’s phony, or that’s not real, or that’s hickish, or that’s redneckish.’ But I don’t feel that way. ... From my own point of view, I love a Southern accent and I love the way they use a lot of expressions in it. It’s lively.”



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