Bob Barr - First Thoughts on his LP Run

Bob Barr just threw in his hat in the (crowded) Libertarian Party race. Our candidate in 2004 was embarrassing (Michael Badnarik, not even his mother would vote for him). Ron Paul ran for the LP way back in the 80s. Barr will go toe-to-toe with Mike Gravel, formerly running as a democrat, and the other weirdos the LP fields every year.

Barr is the biggest name recognition we’ve had for a while. He is a former Congressman for Georgia, and made a guest appearance in Borat (he was seen eating cheese and almost threw up). I’m not really sure what to make of Barr. He is the guy who really pushed impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, authored the Defense of Marriage Act (a gay bashing bill), strongly supported the War on Drugs, and voted for the USA PATRIOT Act. He was even against medical marijuana.

For him to join the LP is absurd. But he did join the LP 2 years ago and is immediately the front runner. In a way, he is like a George W Bush reborn as a Ron Paul.

While he will not be getting my vote, I think that he may do well enough to give Obama the win. McCain only got 75% of the vote in PA and around the same in IN. Barr could function as a Ross Perot / Ralph Nader and eat up just enough of the angry Republican vote (Dems won’t vote for him with such a good candidate like Obama) to give the dems the win in some key swing states.  

You can visit his website here: http://www.bobbarr2008.com/

He is collecting donations now and has a neat live counter, just like Ron Paul did for a while.

Bob Barr may not be the perfect LP candidate, but let's face it, John McCain is a nightmare and I'd much rather cast a vote for Barr than McCain, if I had to pick between the two.  It's also refreshing to see the LP have the potential to have a non-loon running for them.

Full disclosure: I am a card carrying member of the Libertarian Party, but have not paid dues for many years.