Yes, that was back in 1999. These days according to his issues page he does support overturning R v. W. I guess his long term is about 6-8 years or so, depending upon which group he is trying to secure votes from.

-Marc

“But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support the repeal of Roe v. Wade . . . .”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/mccain082499.htm

Yes, the website includes voting record, as that’s often more substantive than what someone says. Having said that, I don’t really believe Giuliani is more liberty minded than Barr – just that his track record while in office shows it. Barr is rated as conservative, but I believe I posted earlier that I believe Barr’s conversion. I had a somewhat similar one. I was born in 1963. I came of age when Carter was in office. I was a huge Reagan supporter as were many of my contemporaries in both his rhetoric and sharp contrast to Carter. As such, I thought I was a Republican for years. It took several disappointments and the coming of Harry Browne to change that view. Harry made me realize that I was wrong about some things. I think Barr realizes that now, it just took him longer (he was in the system).

Anyway… I wholeheartedly support Barr – and believe McCain a little better than Obama – but its somewhat like drowning in 30 feet of water vs. 40 feet of water with them.

The other thing, from my perspective, is that those libertarian testers give undue weight to fringe wedge issues like whether you want to legalize crack and prostitution, or sell the national parks. I find those to be pointless distractions, deserving of much less weight than things like overall government spending, taxes, free trade, gun rights and so on. I know others disagree, which is why I stopped being in the LP and just became independent.

Harry Browne was a great communicator, better than Barr, and libertarian his whole life. But, Barr’s got a bigger stage…

There’s a website called ontheissues.org that classifies the candidates into a 4 quadrant system, where libertarian is one of them. Ron Paul was certainly the closest of the initial candidates. Rudy Giuliani was #2. Out of the Dems – there was no one who wasn’t either hard core liberal nor populist. Can’t recall where McCain ended up, mainly because he wasn’t as anti-liberty as Obama (who was one of the worst), but nowhere near the top (where Ron Paul came closest).

I haven’t checked to see where they put Bob Barr – but they go on the last several years worth of positions, so he still wouldn’t come all that close to Paul. In fact, I’d suspect Giuliani’s stances/record would still come closer than Barr’s. For Barr, we just have to hope its a real conversion. I choose to believe it is. Barr is saying things that are far closer to a true liberty position than either big party candidate.

Frankly, I can’t stomach either Obama nor McCain. In short, even though Marc’s rankings may be harsh to McCain – the basic message is the same.

A lot of people are saying, well, voting for Barr just ensures Obama gets in. My thought is Obama is the most anti-liberty and Barr is the most pro-liberty. McCain is in the middle. So, a vote for McCain tends to ensure Obama gets in. If everyone just voted their conscience and not what the media said, I’d bet Barr could get a lot of votes…

Further addressing the specific issues you brought up:

Taxes:
We downgraded McCain here because he has been against the Bush tax cuts in the past (twice) and has continually voted for trillion dollar budgets (related to spending more I suppose). Because of this it is difficult to trust him when he says he will make the Bush tax cuts permanent… But even then the Bush tax cuts are only a trickle compared to what Ron Paul wants to do. Again, it is not a test of whether the criteria is a step in the right direction or not, but how it measures up to Ron Paul.

Immigration:
Agreed, they both do stink, but what we found interesting is that Obama actually has echoed Ron Paul on one aspect of immigration and that is reducing the incentive for illegal immigrants to come here. Also Obama actually voted FOR the border fence (Ron Paul did, but later said he didn’t really believe in it), but later (again like Ron Paul) went back on the idea. McCain supported Amnesty in a very clear way, unlike Obama’s more convoluted way.

Gun Control:
Obama is very bad on this, but McCain is not great either. He has voted for gun control measures like trigger locks, regulating gun shows, pawn shops selling guns, etc.. The GOA despises him. See this and tell me how close he is to Ron Paul on this issue:
http://www.gunowners.org/mccaintb.htm

You are correct that given the choice between Obama and McCain gun rights people will most certainly vote for McCain, but it is not a vote they seem to be happy about if they are informed of his record.

War on Drugs:
Both Obama and McCain like to tip toe around this issue. Perhaps giving Obama a 2 here was too high, but he has said things that indicate he is more apt to reform the drug war than McCain. It may be prudent to score him a 1 instead of a 2 because of that, but McCain is a certain 0.

Health Care: see above.

Ability To Spread The Liberty Message:
Yes… Obama’s civil liberties and now somewhat shifting stance on Iraq are better than McCain’s Bush like advocacy of the Patriot Act, FISA, Iraq War, Foreign Policy of interventionism. Although the argument could be made that Obama’s not much better on these issues. Then taking into account Obama’s socialist domestic policies/programs certainly makes both Obama and McCain equally bad at having a “liberty message” to spread. And remember it is how close they are to Ron Paul on that liberty message. Neither even come close in our view.

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate the discussion.

Enjoy,
Marc