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Unless you are an active participant in the Libertarian Party, this is probably the first and last time you will hear that Bob Barr is exploring a run for President in 2008. Why do I bother to mention it – because I was bored.
I got an email as part of an email list I didn’t know existed with the announcement about Mr. Barr. As soon as I located the way to unsubscribe I visited the campaign website. I decided to write about it because of how familiar some of the features were – they looked like they had been lifted off of the Ron Paul website. Some of the widgets he had looked like leftovers from the Mike Huckabee website. It turns out that the firm that designed Bob Barr’s site also designed Ron Paul’s site. (I have no information on who designed the Huckabee website.)
Unless Obama is convicted in October of having McCain assassinated in September there is no way we will be hearing about Barr in November. If he, or any other third party candidate, gets into any debates he will be largely ignored as every minor candidate is (as determined by the media) during each debate where they are allowed a backstage pass – I mean a place at the debate.
6 replies on “Bob Barr”
Another interesting third-party candidate is Alan Keyes. He’s making a go at the nomination in the Constitution Party. It’s interesting how these well-knowns are lining up on the political fringes, no?
Alan Keyes was running for the Republican nomination. I guess it only makes sense to seek support from another party now that the Republican nomination has been secured by McCain.
Perhaps Keyes and Barr feel that these other parties have more potential to get votes than they would have if the Republicans were more enthusiastic about McCain. If that is the case, Barr has chosen the better third-party because the Libertarians already have ballot access in almost all the states.
Barr must be the candidate that I saw interviewed on cable news the other night. If you don’t watch cable news you wouldn’t be aware that Barr and other candidates are receiving exposure. A lot of people watch cable news so it cannot be discounted.
The growing proliferation of alternate party candidates has to be credited in part to the growing discontent with both Obama and Clinton. In another post you gave Obama a lot of leeway, i.e., nothing short of an assassination plot on McCain would have an effect with Obama’s true believers. That was right before Obama’s recent comments about small town people in PA, which will likely have a major effect in a general election, which is where alternate party candidates come into play (a smaller effect among Democrats, but likely enough for Clinton to win PA) Unless the alternate party candidate is for an Iraq policy based on success, I don’t see how the rise of alternative party candidates can be attributed to McCain, who seems to be the real bi-partisan candidate. I have to give McCain credit for having the character to speak what he believes even if it isn’t considered to be a good campaign strategy. He came out for the surge in Iraq before it was successful when most other politicians were declaring that it would not succeed.
What is the Keyes position on the Iraq war, and can Keyes be identified as more of a party line conservative than McCain? – If so then what are the Keyes positions that make him more attractive to party line conservatives?
I guess that I falsely assumed that if it was being covered on cable news it would be showing up online somewhere. I’m glad to hear that there is exposure for candidates other than McCain, Clinton, and Obama.
I didn’t mean to imply that nothing could dampen the Obama supporters short of him plotting to assassinate McCain. What I meant to suggest was that nothing short of that would terminate both candidacies. Admittedly that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
If Keyes was viewed as a viable and true conservative I think he would have received a little more support while seeking the Republican nomination than he received.
I am not clear on what makes a true conservative, except that I understand that McCain’s views on immigration are at issue, with McCain erring on the side of compassion. To my point of view the immigration issue is impossible to decide. Governance by rule of law is important but I feel compassion towards most of the immigrants. Since I can’t decide myself, I give McCain credit for taking a stand and erring on the side of compassion. Other than that it is unclear to me what issues are at stake between McCain and true conservatives.
If we put character aside for the moment, we can identify the issues that all the candidates stand for, and where they differ and where they agree, and perhaps also identify what is a true conservative as well as a true liberal.
I don’t think there is one definition of a true conservative (or a true liberal for that matter). There are issues where people who are generally more conservative generally agree, but the importance of various issues to this nebulous group vary from person to person. For some, immigration is important, for others, not so important, and for others (like you) they don’t really agree with the majority of their fellow generally-conservative citizens.