NEW YORK -- GOP power broker Haley Barbour told The Huffington Post on Thursday that the party has yet to coalesce around Mitt Romney, and that Saturday's primary in Louisiana could further slow the former Massachusetts governor down.
After netting an interview with former New York Gov. David Paterson on our initial visit, HuffPost returned to Manhattan's famed Loews Regency Hotel on Thursday to catch up with influential figures at the self-described "home of the Power Breakfast."
During this most recent trip, yet another one-time governor strolled out the door and weighed in on the ongoing presidential race. Barbour, the former Mississippi governor, stopped to chat with HuffPost about Romney, Rick Santorum and the unpredictability of the primary process.
"Romney, I thought, had a big victory in Illinois," said Barbour of the presidential candidate's recent win in the Land of Lincoln. He noted that with Newt Gingrich largely sidelined in the state, Santorum had gotten the one-on-one race he'd long wanted, yet still fell short.
Nevertheless, he thinks Santorum is "likely to win" Louisiana's March 24th primary. Barbour explained that despite Romney's victories thus far, "he hasn't had the actual coalescence behind him of everybody drawn together" in the Republican Party.
"Whether Louisiana will further delay that, stop that, get it going in the other direction, you know, anybody after a race this unpredictable who tries to predict anything needs their head examined," he advised.
WATCH VIDEO OF THE INTERVIEW ABOVE
Ryan Grim and Jon Ward contributed to this report.