Bob Barr. Who?
Marc Ambinder has Russ Verney’s first major statement as the campaign manager for Bob Barr here. According to Doug Bandow, Barr’s senior policy advisor:
Congressman Barr is poised to have a huge impact on the public policy debates and political history. His will be no ordinary presidential campaign.
Verney:
…consider this outline :
early October: 7% in national surveys
Mid October: wins televised Presidential debate
late October: 12% in national surveys
election day: captures 19% of national voteThat’s what happened in a previous election I was involved with: Ross Perot in 1992. That could have been the case with Ron Paul if he had opted to run on a third party ticket.
Perhaps, although I doubt that any amount of money and air-time would have boosted a Paul candidacy near 20% of the popular vote.
As for Mr. Barr’s, who exactly is he??
I think it would be great for 3rd party candidate to mix things up with McCain and Obama, but I don’t see any of them getting 5%, let alone 20.
Blah, blah, blah, blah…
Congressman Barr is poised to have a huge impact on the public policy debates and political history. His will be no ordinary presidential campaign. Not with Bob Barr in it Bob smile I am smiling. Bob Barr will make the dabate
huge impact on the public policy debates.
It’s funny. After decades of supporting presidential candidates whose support never even registers in the polls, the Libertarian Party has finally found a presidential candidate who has both widespread name recognition and a shot of winning 5% of the vote in November. Yet despite my tenednecy to support Libertarian candidates in recent years, I find myself unable to support Bob Barr.
While I admire Bob Barr for speaking out against his former party on a variety of issues (the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, out-of-control-spending during the Bush presidency), I simply feel that he is the wrong guy to lead the Libertarian Party. For one thing, he doesn’t have a very libertarian track record on social issues. For another, he’s a polarizing figure who has little chance of attracting dissaffected Democrats into the Libertarian Party.
I continue to believe that it was a huge mistake for Ron Paul to turn down the Libertarian Party nomination for president. Given his firm & consistent opposition to the Iraq War and fundraising prowess, I think his polling numbers would be higher than Barr’s.
Ron Paul may officially belong to the Republican Party while Bob Barr might officially belong to the Libertarian Party, but I offer this: Ron Paul is a conservative-leaning libertarian capable of attracting considerable support from liberal voters during the general election. Bob Barr is a libertarian-leaning conservative who would have little-to-no support from liberal voters during the general election.
(comment cross-posted at The Moderate Voice)