Liberty Maven

The Barr campaign has released a new commercial attacking the recent bailouts in the financial industry. I really like the ad. It gets the point across in a direct and dare I say “cute” way. It’s not a all shiny and polished ad like we’ve been seeing from McCain and Obama here in Virginia, but it’s not that far away.

There is a particularly good Bob Barr endorsement article from Andrew B. Lohse in The Dartmouth Review. Lohse happens to be in a family of conservative Republicans and worries what reactions his family members will have to his choice of Bob Barr. His piece reads like an endorsement for Barr from a conservative Republican perspective… because… well that’s exactly what it is.

This is a fine example of how Bob Barr can win the votes of those disgruntled lifetime GOP’ers.

I have a problem. I’m voting for a third party candidate—Bob Barr. Barr is the Libertarian presidential candidate. My parents, glaring speechlessly and wondering what happened to the young Republican who cried when Bob Dole lost in ‘96, tell me I’m throwing my vote away. I haven’t even made this confession yet to my grandfather, a lifelong “common sense” Republican, but I shudder to think what he’ll say. My other grandfather also cried when Clinton won in ‘96, so he might understand why I’m voting for the man who tried to send “42” back to Arkansas.

This election season, Obamamania is feverishly hot; news stories of women fainting at rallies, pious displays of Obama as the Messiah, and even Obama’s own claims to “stop the sea’s rise” allude to the fact that the Democratic party is obsessively consumed by the cult of personality erected around “The One.” “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” he tells crowds of supporters.

For the GOP, a party I no longer identify with, there is much less excitement. McCain’s not exactly electrifying, and the hype around Sarah Palin has fizzled out. But what’s worse is that the Republican ticket is confirming what the Bush II presidency already established: that to be a Republican these days is to be something different than a conservative.

So to other disaffected conservatives disgusted by the bailout, the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, excessive spending, and the Federal Government running roughshod over the states, I offer you an impractical alternative: vote for Bob Barr.

Somewhat ironically (because it comes from a “conservative”) Lohse covers one of Barr’s painful negatives in the eyes of many libertarian voters: His votes for the Patriot Act and for the Iraq War authorization.

However, even the rare principled politician like Barr can be deceived. In the first Bush term he voted for both the Patriot Act and the Iraq War, two votes he describes as his biggest regrets. In his own words, “My vote to authorize the war was a mistake, and I realize it now. The administration gave inaccurate, unsound intelligence. I voted to depose Saddam Hussein—the Bush administration used that resolution for a multi-year occupation of Iraq. Unlike McCain, I don’t appreciate the fact that the administration did a bait and switch; but that bait and switch doesn’t seem to bother him.”

If you know someone weighing a vote for either John McCain or Bob Barr this article could sway them to the Barr side.

Bob Barr appeared along with Ralph Nader on CNN American Morning today. Barr was able to speak directly about how he would handle Social Security. Of course, Nader disagreed with him. They also discuss what important issues have been missing from the two major party nominee’s rhetoric. It’s nice to see Barr getting his face out there in the media a few days before election day.

I wish I had paid more attention to politics in High School. I didn’t come to libertarianism until I was in my early twenties. A mock debate in a Michigan high school played out a bit like what the real debates could have been. Along with McCain and Obama, the mock debate included a student representing the views of Libertarian candidate Bob Barr. The student had never heard of Barr nor the Libertarian Party prior to planning for the debate.

Matt Tanyi, who played Barr, said it was important that students heard a different set of views.

“All you ever hear about is Democrats and Republicans. This opened my eyes to the need for an opposing view point,” said Tanyi, who’d never heard of Barr before the mock debate.

As Barr, Matt criticized government spending habits and talks of going to war with Iran.

“The government is money hungry. It’s going to spend as much money as it can get out of you,” Tanyi said. “Just because a country may have weapons of mass destruction is no reason to go to war. America is not the world’s police.”

The debate was put on by the school’s advance placement U.S. government and politics class.

Teacher Andy Nester said the debate helps students better understand the candidates.

“They learn the passion behind how these different groups believe the government should operate,” Nester said. “And when the students hear these things coming from their peers, it’s believable to them.”

The teacher, Andy Nester, deserves praise for including at least one of the third party candidates in the mock debate. That is more than can be said of the debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which strictly limits the participation of third party candidates with thoroughly un-American and unfair requirements.

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The Bob Barr factor was discussed at length on CNN’s Situation Room yesterday. Of course the entire segment was dedicated to Barr’s spoiler role rather than focused on the actual issues. Watch it below.

Bob Barr will join Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin at a debate in Ohio. All three campaigns have confirmed their attendance. The debate will be held tomorrow October 30th beginning at 4pm. It is being held at the City Club of Cleveland.

This is truly short notice. One wonders how many people will show up. No word yet on television outlets picking it up. Since it is scheduled for tomorrow it seems unlikely any will.

Invitations have been sent to Obama, McCain, and McKinney but they have yet to confirm.

This is being reported by Ballot Access News and it is on Barr’s public event schedule.

Reason Magazine asked several writers, associates, comedians, and people associated with the magazine in various ways five questions about the upcoming election. Drew Carey dodged the first question a bit which was,  “Who Are You Voting For In November?”.

The other questions are semi-serious, including the gem, “Leaving George W. Bush out of consideration, what former U.S. president would you most like to have waterboarded?”

I was pleased to see that Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt received their share of votes for the waterboarding question. I was quite disappointed in the many people choosing to vote for Obama. Well, it seems most are voting more against McCain than for Obama. Bob Barr received a few votes and even McCain got a few.

Here is Drew Carey’s response:

1. Who are you voting for in November? Anybody but McCain/Palin. Seriously. I’m begging you.

2. Who did you vote for in 2004 and 2000? I voted for the Libertarian candidate both times just to be puckish.

3. Is this the most important election in your lifetime? No. I believe the answers to all the problems we face as a society won’t come from Washington, it will come from us. So the way we decide to live our lives and our decisions about what we buy or don’t buy are much more important than who we vote for.

4. What will you miss about the Bush administration?

5. Leaving George W. Bush out of consideration, what former U.S. president would you most like to have waterboarded? None of them. The sooner we stop coming up with lists of people to waterboard, the better.

One of my favorite responses comes from Charles Oliver:

1. Who are you voting for in November? I won’t be voting for president. If I did, it would be for Bob Barr because, as imperfect as his candidacy is, he’s the only one who is at least talking about a noninterventionist foreign policy, rethinking the war on drugs, and shrinking the size of the federal government.

2. Who did you vote for in 2004 and 2000? To the best of my memory, the last presidential candidate I voted for was Ron Paul in 1988. I’d like to say I have some grand philosophical reason for not voting, but the reality is that no candidate since then has excited me enough to get out and vote.

3. Is this the most important election in your lifetime? No, because, while John McCain and Barack Obama may differ on some particulars, they share the same fundamental view of government. Whichever one wins, there will be an expansion in the size and scope of the federal government, especially if, as is likely, the Democrats increase their majorities in Congress.

4. What will you miss about the Bush administration? I’ll miss most all of those posts on National Review’s The Corner that gushed over Bush (and Dick Cheney) like the diary entries of a school girl confessing her love for the Jonas Brothers.

5. Leaving George W. Bush out of consideration, what former U.S. president would you most like to have waterboarded? I guess I’d waterboard Woodrow Wilson because, among many other reasons, he led the United States into World War I and presided over the creation of the Federal Reserve. I’d say the world has been suffering from those decisions almost a century now.

Read the other numerous and mostly interesting responses here.

There was a rather short (as expected) report on NBC Nightly News this evening on Barr and his campaign. Watch it below.

This was a much more “respectful” report (but half as long) than the one from NBC last year during Ron Paul’s campaign where he was painted as a “fringe” candidate. See that one again below for comparison.

Free and Equal is hosting another Third Party debate. This time it is the Vice Presidential candidates. Three candidates have confirmed participation: Wayne Root (Libertarian), Darrell Castle (Constitution Party), and Matt Gonzalez (Independent). The event is scheduled for Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 in Las Vegas, NV.

See the press release for more information.

I’m happy to see Root participating in this one. It suggests that Barr not appearing at the other debate due to scheduling conflicts was legitimate and not some matter of ego. Of course, we might be subjected to Wayne Root yelling “Bang!….. Bang!” following every answer (for those that witnessed him at the Libertarian Convention you know exactly what I mean).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m voting for the guy, and I think every other liberty-seeking individual should do so as well. However, by just about every measure the Bob Barr campaign has not lived up to expectations. I suppose it’s not over quite yet, but with only a week left before election day it is difficult not to admit that the campaign is a failure. The cause of the failure is not entirely the Barr campaign’s fault, but some of it certainly is.

Prior to the Libertarian Convention I was very excited at the prospect of Bob Barr being the party’s nominee. I figured he would be the heir apparent to Ron Paul. I figured he would garner all of Paul’s whole-hearted activist support while bringing in high numbers of voters unhappy with Barry O’Messiah and John McChameleon. As I watched Barr win the nomination at the Libertarian Convention on CSPAN I was energized anew after the deflated feeling I felt when it was obvious Ron Paul would not get the GOP nomination (not that I ever truly thought that would happen, I had hope though).

Little did I know that would be the high point of my energy for the Barr campaign. In the days and weeks since, I’ve grown more and more despondent. Many circumstances out of Barr’s control mounted against him.

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