PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Haley Barbour focused primarily on national politics — particularly President Obama — when talking to a predominately conservative audience Thursday seated on the wooden benches under the Founders Square pavilion.

Barbour said Obama's government-run health care plan, which he termed "Obamacare" would "result in a federal government takeover of 18 percent of our economy."

He said former president Ronald Reagan led the country out of a deep recession in the 1980s with his conservative fiscal leadership; Obama, he said, is leading the country in the opposite direction.

"This administration and the extremely liberal Democrat Congress have gone on a spending spree that would give drunken sailors a bad name," he said, adding that the federal budget this year will leave a $1.8 trillion deficit, more than double the previous record.

"And lots of Americans are concerned," he said. "Indeed, they’re scared of all this spending . . . as they should be."

The Fair attracts thousands of people every summer to the red clay hills of East Mississippi, with two days of political speeches during the eight-day gathering.

Because there are no statewide or congressional races in Mississippi this year, fewer politicians spoke in the pavilion. Spectators sat in rows of wooden pews and waved paper fans to stir up a tiny breeze in the muggy heat.

Barbour, the new head of the Republican Governors Association, said the Obama administration’s climate-change legislation would increase energy costs for consumers and businesses. He said ‘‘the left and their allies in the liberal media elite’’ claim the environment bill would help the economy, but he said the bill would destroy jobs.

The governor talked a bit about the state's recent budget battles and said while the state is seeing some effects of the national economy, it's doing better than most.

"Mississippi will keep our eye on the ball, but I hope you’ll tell your Congressman to stop Washington from killing our jobs with Waxman-Markey and Obamacare. If Washington doesn’t drown us, Mississippi will recover soon and start growing again as we were through the middle of last year," Barbour said. "I’m an optimist; always have been. And I’m confident we’ll overcome bad federal policy if we have to."

State Treasurer Tate Reeves, a Republican, also appealed to the politically conservative crowd Thursday by saying Obama and congressional Democrats are running up the federal deficit and trying to ‘‘nationalize’’ health care.

‘‘That’s not hope. That’s not change. That’s not America,’’ Reeves said.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann focused on his job as overseer of state elections and public lands. Hosemann, a Republican who took office in January 2008, said public school districts are now receiving $22 million more for land leases that have been renegotiated. He said the leases are now generating $77 million a year.

During an interview after the political speeches Thursday, Barbour told reporters that as head of the Republican Governors Association, he’s concentrating on getting his GOP allies elected to governorships in several states during the next two years.

‘‘My day job is state government,’’ Barbour said. ‘‘My hobby is national Republican politics.’’

Asked what role he thinks he might play in the future of the GOP, Barbour said, "strategist, fundraiser, helper ... we'll have to see. But he said his top priority is Mississippi and electing Republican governors in 2010.



Meridian Star Editor Fredie Carmichael and Associated Press Writer Emily Wagster Pettus contributed to this report.