Charles Barkley is not playing around when he says he wants to be the future governor of Alabama. The former NBA player is currently making moves to ensure that he will indeed take over the position as soon as he becomes eligible.
"I can’t run until 2014. I have to live there for seven years, so I’m looking for a house there as we speak," he tells the Associated Press, adding that he would run as an independent, not a Democrat as previously reported. "The Republicans are full of it. The Democrats are a little less full of it."
Barkley made the comments to reporters at the US Airways Center in Phoenix Tuesday in advance of his induction into the basketball Hall of Fame this weekend in Springfield, Mass.
Asked if he had ever been in the governor’s office in Montgomery, Barkley said no, explaining: "They don’t let many black people in the governor’s mansion in Alabama, unless they’re cleaning.
When asked why he’d like to be the governor, Barkley said: "I want to speak for people who can’t speak for themselves. America discriminates against poor people. America’s divided by economics. If you’re born poor, whether you’re white, black or Spanish, you’re going to be in a bad neighborhood and you’re going to a bad school.
That’s not right.
In the meantime, Barkley said he’s donating $1 million to build houses in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
"That was a really big deal for me," he said, "because I cannot believe in the United States I see people on television for two or three days begging for food and water. That shouldn’t happen here."
Reprinted with permission:
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