Recently Charles Barkley revealed to CNN’s Campbell Brown that he intends to run for governor of Alabama in 2014. He believes the state has nowhere to go but up, and while Alabama is “number 48 in everything,” Arkansas and Mississippi which are apparently 49 and 50 “aren’t going anywhere,” which means to Mr. Barkley that at the very least, he can’t screw things up any worse.

Though Barkley has some interesting ideas on the American presidency – notably that the American president, despite being the most powerful person in the free world, does not have an impact on a person’s day to day life. I call this an interesting idea, because lately it seems that by and large, a lot of folks have this weird belief that President Bush has been climbing into their window at night and sucking their blood or something. Though I do believe Barkley takes the notion a little too far, as he continues to say “realistically, whoever the president is doesn’t have a huge effect on anybody’s life, to be honest with you.”

Noting the intended policy decisions by both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain in this current election, I think this could not be further from the truth. In a world where a President Obama would levy increased taxes on the population making anywhere from $42k-$300k per year, where fees would be inflicted on companies that don’t provide health care despite paying additional taxes to provide for the nationalized program, or where a President McCain would tax health care benefits for the first time in history, there are very real effects that the average citizen would experience, acutely and directly.

Barkley does make a number of good points with regard to race and education. Being but a stone’s throw outside the Detroit Public School system, his points are more keenly felt. In the wake of a shooting death at one of the local high school, Barkley’s point that “(unless) we as black people stop killing each other, not getting our education, we have to do better. Racism does exist. It is always going to exist, but until we as a people stop killing each other and stop not getting our education we are never going to be successful” hits harder than ever. He isn’t just speaking for his home state of Alabama. A similar cancer plagues Michigan, it plagues Louisiana, it plagues even our major cities like Los Angeles and New York.

Though he’s no economist – Barkley makes no bones about how the Republican party “ran (this) economy into the ground.” It’s not for a complete lack of awareness, I think Mr. Barkley simply buys into the Democratic party line that the Republican president caused all our woes, when in fact congressional and house Republicans have been pushing for years to enact the regulation which would have forestalled if not prevented the economic crisis we now face. Of course, regulation is not necessarily a Republican precept, so it’s understandable that one might not quickly come to such a conclusion, but the evidence is out there.

Regardless, overall I could get behind a Barkley administration. His heart seems to be in the right place and with the right state advisors behind him, I think he could make some good things happen regardless of ideology. One doesn’t need to be a Liberal or a Conservative to want better schools for our children and better economic opportunities for our citizens. It’s not a bipartisan issue to want to improve our states and bring up the level of our general welfare.

It’s not even a political thing. It’s an American thing.