Bob Barr For President ?

Election '08, Politics

Once again, there’s speculation that former Congressman Bob Barr may be running for President as a Libertarian:

Bob Barr for president? According to the Washington Times, the former Republican congressman from Cherokee County confirms he is considering a run for the White House as a Libertarian.

“There is great deal [of] dissatisfaction with the candidates for the two major parties, particularly among conservatives, but also a great deal of Internet and other support for a candidate like Ron Paul who advocates libertarian and true conservative principles,” Barr, who is now a Libertarian, told the newspaper.

Unlike last time, Barr is not denying the rumors either:

Former Congressman Barr has been receiving numerous calls for him to consider seeking the nomination of the Libertarian Party for the presidency of the United States. He understands this reflects in part the deep dissatisfaction prevalent among voters with the candidates of the two major parties. Congressman Barr is grateful for the many and continuing expressions of support for his potential candidacy. He has, however, made no decision in that regard.

In other words, he’s seriously thinking about it.

H/T: Jason Pye

Doug Mataconis
  • UCrawford

    So I guess that this would be the Libertarian Party leadership’s official confirmation that their entire primary process is a complete joke. Not that anyone with half a brain hadn’t already figured that out after they went groveling to Ron Paul to be their appointed leader near the end of their primary season.

    So if Bob Barr is such a great choice, why didn’t he throw his hat in the ring so he could take the nomination through legitimate channels instead of backdooring all the people who actually spent time and money campaigning and putting themselves out there? Cheap tactic…very, very cheap. The only good thing to come out of this is it may finally kill off the Libertarian Party so that we can possibly take back the GOP.

  • http://www.rogelsview.com Rogel

    I wonder what, beside of holding the LP card, makes him Libertarian. His voting record indicates that he is plain conservative with very little regard to liberty.

  • UCrawford

    Rogel,

    Barr’s reversed a number of his positions since leaving office and during his time working with the LP. He’s publicly renounced his former support for the PATRIOT Act and has come out in favor of the legalization of marijuana (taking a position with the Marijuana Policy Project) as the links below discuss:

    http://www.reason.com/news/show/28960.html

    http://www.reason.com/news/show/117284.html

    http://www.reason.com/blog/show/117470.html

    http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2007/former-rep-bob-barr-now.html

  • http://thelibertypapers.org/ Brad Warbiany

    Rogel,

    He SAYS he’s rethought his position on the drug war. I’d say– if true– that’d be a major step up from his past.

    But at this point, I don’t have faith that he’s really changed his internal beliefs on these issues. I think he may have changed his rhetoric to suit his new job.

  • http://www.rogelsview.com Rogel

    The core of the issue is his approach. Yes, he maybe change his opinion on some drugs and on the Patriot Act but the underline is the same – his approach is more social conservative and much less Libertarian.

  • UCrawford

    Rogel,

    Taking a position with the Marijuana Policy Project is not a socially conservative approach :)

    Brad,

    Since neither of us can actually read his mind or look into his soul (as Bush did with Putin) all I can do is judge the man by his current actions. Currently he says he sees that the PATRIOT Act is a dangerous thing, that he has changed his view on the War on Drugs and he is actively working for pro-legalization groups. If he held the same beliefs as before and if he wanted to go back into politics, he could very easily have worked his way back in through the GOP because he still has credibility there…he didn’t have to go the LP route (which is hardly a guarantor of success). At this point I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he now understands that holding socially conservative personal beliefs and advocating socially liberal political policies does not make one a hypocrite.

    And at this point, if he were to become the clear LP presidential nominee…I’d actually consider giving the man my vote. My suspicion, however, is that this tactic would end up fracturing the party for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

  • TAO

    I would like to see a Bob Barr/Mary Ruwart ticket from the LP. It would make the neocons shit themselves. Not because the LP ticket would win but, because it would put the final nail in the coffin for the GOP in 2008. Although they have been doing fine on their own with the funeral ceremonies.
    I got $1500 to Barr if he jumps in, the full $2300 if he’s pro post 86 machine gun ownership.

  • tkc

    My magic crystal ball predicts that Bob Barr will not be president. Oh wait… that was an empty bottle of scotch I was looking at. Oddly enough, no difference.

  • Gary Lampman

    The LP better start playing this game to win or it will be just a Sunday afternoon time killer on CSPAN. Your conventions act like a Trekkie fan club meeting, Wake Up! Get a candidate that will at least make a decent media impact and maybe actually make a mark on the electoral landscape. GL.

  • Jersey

    Sunday April 6, 2008 2:30PM Rep. Barr has stated he is forming an exploratory community. Alleluia! I want to be a Paul / Barrer. Let’s go, we can do this, we should do this, we will do this. The time is now, spread the word.

  • http://www.ThePhora.net Kevin Riley O’Keeffe

    Of course Bob Barr won’t be elected President. That’s really not the point of LP candidacies at this stage. But what Bob Barr might be able to accomplish (more likely than any other potential LP nominee) is to rack up one or two percent of the popular vote, and thus deny the Presidency (in what’s likely to be yet another very close election) to the most anti-liberty major party nominee since at least Lyndon Johnson, if not all the way back to FDR himself. John McInsane is a war mongering, police state fascist, even worse than Bush. And as a liberal Republican, so to speak, he will have the support of his own party when he tries to hammer through much of the same domestic agenda as Hillarious Rotten Klinton (the difference being that Republicans would likely tend to oppose her efforts). McCain is also certain to take us into war with Iran, something this nation can ill afford, to say the least.

    Defeating John McInsane should be the top priority of Americans who love liberty, and the best way we can do that is to nominate a candidate that has the potential to attract support from many of the people who voted for Ron Paul in the GOP primaries this year (such as myself). If we can send McCain down to defeat, and at the same time break Ed Clark’s 1980 record for the highest portion of the popular vote, then that’s what we should be doing! The other LP candidates will just repeat what Badnarik did in 2004 with his 400,000 votes. We need a candidate who can get a couple million votes this time out, and Bob Barr is the best shot at that. He may not be the dream candidate of the ideological purist, but he’s libertarian enough for the LP, and has the credibility of being a formerly prominent member of Congress to be able to capitalize on wide-spread dissatisfaction among conservative Republicans over the McCain nomination.