The Libertarian Party has nominated former Representative Bob Barr for President.
Given that he does have some name recognition, what are the chances that he could draw more than the normal pittance of Libertarian votes? Could the Ron Paul supporters flock to him? Will he draw from the disaffected Republican base, or is it more likely that they will hold their noses and vote for McCain?
My opinion is that his campaign will make no difference in the election. While he could increase the Libertarian vote, even doubling it would still leave it at less than 1%, and the effect of his run, even in close states, will be negligible and unnoticeable.
When I saw the news this morning, I started cursing and considered starting a Pit thread. Then I checked out the latest on where Bob Barr on the issues. Forgive me if I’m telling you things you already know, but some of this is fresh information to me.
Yes, he’s the guy who’s been married three times who sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act. He was also staunchly anti-abortion and was considered one of the most conservative Congressmen as recently as 2002. His belief that abortion should be illegal alone makes him a poor candidate for the Libertarian party in my opinion, since that constitutes government interference with a very personal decision. He was also a big supporter of the war on drugs and proposed that Congress ban the practice of Wicca in the military.
However, apparently some time during the past few years he got fed up with the current adiminstration’s interference with civil liberties and has become more of a libertarian. He now supports the use of medical marijuana and opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment which is a proposed amendment to the constitution which would define marriage as only between a man and a woman. He’s also joined the ACLU and done some work for them. Here’s what wikipedia has on him.
I’m interested in all this because I usually vote for the Libertarian party for president because neither the Democratic nor the Republican party does all that good a job of representing my views and I don’t like the two party hegemony that’s dominated American politics for so long. However, I’m having a hard time digging up more recent information on Mr. Barr’s policy on abortion and how he feels about religions other than Christianity. In fact while I was trying to find out what his current stance on abortion is, all I could find was even more damning information about him.
My gut feeling is that a lot of people won’t buy into his newfound conversion to Libertarianism but will base the way they feel about him on his well publicized past. He could take some of the conservative Chrisitan vote away from John McCain, especially if McCain has to keep distancing himself from prominent conservative Christian leaders. On the other hand, I doubt he’ll win over many independents or Democrats. There’s a chance he could be to the Republicans what Ralph Nader was to the Democrats. He could also push more independents over to the Democrats. As for me, personally, unless I get some new information on his current policies, the Libertarians have now lost my vote.
I’d say that if he wants it, he could do well (not win or anything, but capture a few percent of the vote and substantially raise people’s awareness of the Libertarian party). That said, it never seems to me that the Libertarians try that hard. Say what you will about Nader’s 2000 run, he actually went out and tried to get votes, actively pursuing liberal voters, speaking on college campus’s, getting big names like Michael Moore onto cable networks to plug for his campaign. I admittedly don’t pay that much attention, so maybe I’m just missing it, but it seems like the Libertarian effort each year is more or less perfunctory, they hold a convention, choose a candidate, and I don’t hear from them again till the next election.
Ron Paul’s successes show theirs a decent amount of support out there this year, but only if the Lib’s actually try and get it.
Ron Paul could, if he were the Lib nominee this year, play a spoiler role against McCain. I don’t think Barr can do that, he doesn’t have the name recognition.
Has Paul endorsed McCain? A Paul endorsement for Barr would probably get the press to take notice give the Lib candidate at least some name recognition (and extra fund-raising power).
Bob Barr was conflicted about his anti-liberty positions quite a long time ago. I think he just finally faced up to his contradictions and decided he’d been wrong. This isn’t a last minute conversion of expedience just to lead a political party - he’s been actively spreading libertarian ideas for at least 3-4 years now, and had many libertarian ideas long before that. I think he’s genuine.
Whether he’ll be a good candidate or not, I don’t know. He always gave off a touch of the crazy vibe, but then most Libertarian politicians (including Ron Paul) do as well.
Just to put some numbers on that, I have seen a poll putting Barr’s name recognition at 36%. (I believe the poll was commissioned by Barr, so take it with a grain of salt.)
Still, Barr is polling at 6% according to Rasmussen. By way of comparison, Nader only got 2.7% of the national vote in 2000, and we all know how his candidacy affected the race.
I think that’s backwards. You may be too young to remember that Barr was a big player in the Contract With America nonsense back in the 90s. He’ll hurt McCain, definitely. Most libertarians I’ve spoken with are far more excited about Obama because of Goolsbee.
Did anyone see that Libertarian debate on C-Span? The guy Barr picked for VP is pure batshit; no joke. Remember the way Howard Dean ran off all the states still left just before he ‘biyaa’ed’? Yeah well this guy did the same exact thing only with a list of places they could drill for oil in the United States. He trotted out the cold dead hand line. The only thing he did well was yell loudly. Oh, and he said the real thing we should have done after 9/11 was arm every civilian and break into militias. Seige does a good job summing up Barr. I do not understand how a far right authoritarian is somehow a Libertarian; nor do I buy his conversion.
Congratulations Libertarian party you sabotaged yourself, you want to break away from the NeoCon and PaleoCon mindsets that took over the Republican party and yet that is who you nominate for your own party. Really? And you wonder why you struggle with irrelevancy.
Meanwhile they had to a chance to elect Mike Gravel who already has national exposure, real experience, likability, solid grass roots support, and actual Libertarian values reflected in his record; completely unlike Barr. They also had a chance to elect a decent minded women, Mary Ruwart, with Ron Paul’s endorsement; a chance to break free of the stereotypical parent’s basement dwelling gun-fellating redneck image. Way to fuck that up.
Now that said, as a Dem I am happy they picked the ticket they did because it will break votes off of the right rather than the left should Gravel/Ruwart have been the ticket. Perhaps I am not giving Liberts enough credit and that was their plan, to help the Dems. But as someone who does like to see some progress made for third parties– what the hell were you all thinking?