Comments on: Bob Barr On The Colbert Report

By: The Liberty Papers »Blog Archive » Stormfront, Ron Paul, and Bob Barr — aka Why I Hate Politics

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:48:55 +0000

[...] with Bob Barr. I suggested when I saw Barr’s appearance on The Colbert Report that I thought his response to the question about the war on drugs was duplicitous. He could clearly have stated that he was against the war on drugs as an infringement of personal [...]

By: Nitroadict

Nitroadict — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 02:03:14 +0000

It’s sad to see such rationalizing over Barr.

By: Doug Mataconis

Doug Mataconis — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:46:37 +0000

Peter, It's The Colbert Report, not a serious news show. For the most part, I think Barr did a fine job of getting a message across while playing along with Colbert's act.

By: Peter Orvetti

Peter Orvetti — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:52:54 +0000

All in all, I thought Barr’s Colbert performance was very unimpressive. He spent the whole time on the defensive. Will his whole campaign be about explaining away his past record? And if so, can he at least learn to do it more effectively?

By: Stephen Littau

Stephen Littau — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:08:11 +0000

Brad:

He seemed to say that the “current” war on drugs wasn’t working, rather than expressing that the war on drugs was illiberal and wrong.

That's not the impression I got; I think he misspoke. He may mean that the best way to combat drug use is to end the war on drugs, legalize drugs, or at least decriminalize drugs (which is my position). The biggest impact a president could have in ending the war on drugs would be to defund it completely at the federal level and to pardon all non-violent drug offenders. In this clip (the second clip), I asked Mr. Barr if he would pardon all non-violent drug offenders. His answer wasn't as good as some of the others but he answered it to my satisfaction. I'll have to leave it up to you and others to determine if you are satisfied with his answer to my question. I would like for him to be a little more clear on his position though.

By: UCrawford

UCrawford — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:31:24 +0000

Mickey,

Very good points.

By: UCrawford

UCrawford — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:30:39 +0000

Brad,

I suspect it’s because he’s making a play for McCain’s target audience and they’d be reticent about someone who went with a full legalization argument. Even the argument he put out is better than what we’re likely to get from McCain or Obama.

By: Jeff Molby

Jeff Molby — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:25:56 +0000

If I was certain that Barr believed in ending the drug war on idealogical, not practical, reasons, I would agree with you.

Since he stands no chance of winning, I don’t really care if he actually believes it, so long as he does a good job spreading the message.

By: Mickey Bennett

Mickey Bennett — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:16:26 +0000

Keep in mind that Bob Barr is running for US President, not dictator. He would have no power to end prohibition against the wishes of the people of an individual state. Such a thing would require a Constitutional amendment forbidding any state from implementing prohibition.

By: Mickey Bennett

Mickey Bennett — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:05:27 +0000

I’m comfortable with the Constitutional approach that Bob Barr takes. Returning the prohibition question to the states may be the only first step that makes any sense.

By: Brad Warbiany

Brad Warbiany — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:00:01 +0000

Jeff,

If I was certain that Barr believed in ending the drug war on idealogical, not practical, reasons, I would agree with you. In fact, I’m planning an upcoming post about how much I hate the political act of saying what is politically smart instead of saying what one believes.

Given the choices, I’m either going to vote for Barr in November, or not vote at all. I’d like to get a sense of what the man believes to determine which route I take, and I’m not 100% sold on his “conversion” yet.

By: Jeff Molby

Jeff Molby — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:19:53 +0000

I don’t have a problem with his comments on drug policy. Most people don’t care about our ideals. We won’t convince them unless we can show them the practical benefits of our approach.