Ron Paul and Bob Barr: A Liberty Rift?

September 10th, 2008 2:16 pm | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Activism, Bob Barr, Libertarianism, Liberty, Maven Commentary, Philosophy, Politics, Ron Paul | 1831Comments2008-09-10+18%3A16%3A48Marc+Gallagher

Bob Barr’s press conference finished awhile ago. Reason magazine’s blog has a run down of the event.

Barr opened with a statement on how he’d gotten to this point, and why he’d not attended the Paul event.

- In December 2007, he authored the LP’s statement of intent to nominate Ron Paul for president if he lost the GOP nomination. Paul turned it down.

- Yesterday Barr sent Paul a letter (which I have a copy of, and I’ll scan in a bit) asking Paul to run as Barr’s vice presidential nominee. Wayne Allyn Root agreed to step aside if Paul wanted the job. Paul turned this down.

- Barr signed onto the statement of principles that Nader, McKinney and Baldwin signed, and stands by it. But he declined the offer to appear this morning.

“This is no reflection, certainly, on the tremendous and positive leadership that Ron Paul has provided to the liberty movement over the years. He recognized, for example, the strength of that movement, which has to come from the outside, back in 1987,” when he left the GOP.

The biggest news here in my opinion is that Barr had sent a letter to Ron Paul requesting he be his Vice Presidential running mate. Paul declined. Wayne Root even agreed to step down if Paul was interested. Everyone is quite hot on both sides of the debate right now, including myself. I’m going to let the events sink in a bit and see if more information is forthcoming. For the time being here is the Barr campaign’s official word on requesting Paul to be VP, including the letter’s sent. The title of the article is “Bob Barr Shows Leadership To Unify Liberty Movement”.

More a bit later once the sea waves die down a bit.

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wrdalton says:

September 10th, 2008 at 2:59 pm (#)

I’m puzzled what Bob Barr believed he had to gain by omitting himself from this event, particularly if he agrees with the joint statement released and presumably would like to earn a large share of Ron Paul supporters. Is he upset Paul refused to join him alone? I think the realities of this campaign, and I’ve said before this has to be bigger than a campaign for the principles of the Libertarian or Constitution Parties, is that all four of the “third” party candidates need to unite on the four plank statement of principles issued today and then divide among themselves the fifty states to campaign in. They need to decide who among them will run the strongest in each state, and then direct their supporters to cast their ballots for the “consensus” candidate in each state. In other words, now is the time to pool their resources to work for one another instead of against each other. Besides the obvious benefit each candidate’s campaign will receive by better stewardship of resources, the Mainstream Media will also have reason to give this phenomenon a lot more coverage. Bob Barr uniting with Cynthia McKinney? That’s worth an interview on “60 Minutes” by itself. Also, right now Barr and the others are spending a lot of money trying to get on the ballot in states where others of the four are already present. This isn’t necessary. Supposing the improbable should happen and one or more of the third party candidates should capture the right to a state’s electors, the four candidates could caucus among themselves how to use those electors to the advantage of their common objective – providing an alternative to the present monolithic “two party” system.

Mike Miller says:

September 10th, 2008 at 3:31 pm (#)

I think the reason Ron Paul declined the LP VP slot is, quite simply, because we wants to remain a Republican. He knows that the system is stacked against any third party getting any kind of traction. He wants to stay Republican, and reform that party from within. He couldn’t rightly do that and run on a 3rd party ticket at the same time.

wrdalton says:

September 10th, 2008 at 3:49 pm (#)

Barr’s campaign sent out email focusing entirely on his invitation to Ron Paul and Paul’s refusal to be added to the LP ticket. Barr says he disagrees with Paul’s decision to stay within the Republican Party, but doesn’t address Paul’s recommendation that his supporters vote for one of the minor party candidates, including Barr. I think he just wants to run his LP campaign alone, without the other minor party candidates. He is the only alternative on the ballot here in N.C. Time will tell if his is the best strategy for the long term goal of breaking the Republicrat monopoly.

This is no place says:

September 10th, 2008 at 6:41 pm (#)

to sew the seeds of dissent….

Liberty Movement Angered by Barr’s Absense

Many in the Liberty movement are angered by Bob Barr’s advance from the Unity Press Conference this morning, but it may be worse than it initially appeared.

Worse that posts all over Lew Rockwell, Ron Paul…

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