Could Bob Barr Be the Spoiler Candidate of 2008?
It looks as if former congressman Bob Barr will seek the Libertarian Party nomination for president. If so, he could make John McCain's bid for the White house even more challenging than it already is.
As a talk show host, I enjoy getting calls from my listeners. One of those callers is Clay from Woleska, Georgia. About two years ago, he sent a manuscript of sorts to me entitled, “GOP: Great on Promises, Gutless on Principles.” It was a bound copy of hundreds of letters he received from dozens of Republican lawmakers over the years, ever since the GOP gained a majority in Congress in 1994. They responded to his concerns about the tax code, spending and other issues of which Clay had seen fit to write. When you look at all those promises bound in one book, it’s easy to see why Republicans lost the House and Senate in 2006.
In 2002, Rep. Bob Barr lost his seat in the United States House of Representatives – a victim of those unfulfilled promises. Bob had been targeted by the Left in America for his role as one of the House Managers of the Impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. They had been unsuccessful in 2000, but in 2002 with a little help from redistricting and Barr’s own decision to run against fellow incumbent Rep. John Linder, he was defeated in the Republican primary.
After leaving office, Bob Barr separated more and more from Republican positions on the War in Iraq and the Global War on Terror. He opposed the Patriot Act on civil liberties grounds and collaborated with the ACLU on data and informational privacy issues. He seemed for a time to be a man without a party, until he announced his switch to the Libertarian Party in December 2006.
Last week, I talked to Bob Barr about his run for president as the Libertarian Party candidate. The key issues for Barr are the restoration of civil liberties and protecting privacy rights. He believes that these issues will resonate with young voters and noted how they affected the young followers of Cong. Ron Paul and Sen. Barack Obama.
Barr believes that Sen. John McCain represents that status quo in the Republican Party and is nothing more than a Washington insider on domestic issues and won’t change direction on our engagement in Iraq. He believes that we have to begin withdrawing troops immediately from Iraq to force the Iraqi government to step up. He says without a significant reduction in troops the Iraqis will not take the lead.
Barr also contends the two parties have become mere debating societies rather than agents for change. Conservatives may relate to a candidate like Bob Barr because of the growing irrelevance of the two party system. Barr believes that parties should be relevant and they have to be true to their ideals.
One of the big stumbling blocks for old-time Libertarians was their view on open borders. In light of the existence of the nanny state in America today as well as a less than free market impeded by regulation, Barr is taking a more forward view than the Libertarian Party now professes on illegal immigration. He believes there must be border security but doesn’t support a fence. In addition, he believes it is an issue of sovereignty. Libertarians have acknowledged that in a perfect world involving a free market and personal responsibility, an open border is not a threat because you have to make your own way. But this is not a perfect world and Barr’s position on border security may play well with many voters.
There are many reasons why people decide to run as alternative party candidates. Sometimes it’s to sell a book, get notoriety, or work to further an issue. Few candidates run with the idea they can win the presidency. However, if there is any election in recent years where an alternative candidate can make a difference, it is this one. The Republicans have their candidate. The Democrats are still tearing themselves apart. But there is still money out there for a candidate tap. Many people thought Ron Paul was a fringe candidate, but you can’t deny his following and ability to raise money. This year a strong third party candidate could really muck things up.
So Bob Barr has three obstacles. First, he needs to get legitimate media coverage that is serious and not condescending. Second, he needs to clarify his immigration policy as far as what he means by border security in a way that people will accept. Finally, he has to have a workable policy to fight the Global War on Terror from his constitutional perspective.
Even if he answers all of those concerns, he’s got to decide if getting 3-6 percent of the vote is worth making it much harder for Sen. John McCain to be elected president. Is a Barr candidacy worth the possibility of a President Obama or President Clinton?
Martha Zoller is a political analyst and radio host. Her daily show is carried on WDUN AM 550 in Gainesville, Georgia. She makes regular appearances on cable news programs and was one of Talkers Magazine’s “Heavy Hundred” talk show hosts for 2005, 2006 and 2007. Her first book, “Indivisible: Uniting Values for a Divided America”
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35 Comments
1. Alistair:It doesn’t matter wheather he hurt’s McCain, the two party system has failed and only a third party can send a message with the help of the American people.
Apr 24, 2008 - 4:11 am 2. Suzanne:Alistair is RIGHT! It’s time to end the domination of the Democrats and Republicans and get more Americans involved in the process altogether. Neither the two Democrats nor the Republican is the right candidate for these days. Maybe Bob Barr can lead us in a better direction, maybe not, but I think it’s time to try something different from “same ole, same ole”!
Apr 24, 2008 - 4:48 am 3. MarkD:Evidently we’re unwilling to remember the lesson of president GHWB. Perot was our guy, and we got Bill Clinton and another tax increase.
You could argue that is temporary, and you’re right. But consider the Supreme Court, where Justice Ginsberg still sits. Remember Kelo? How many more 5-4 decisions do you want to come out wrong because you showed them?
Apr 24, 2008 - 7:40 am 4. Brian:Bob Barr is a clown and the worthless libertarian party is just the place for him.
We have a chance to bar the White House from two far left lunatics, who will abandon on troops in the field and along with a Democrat Congress, impose “universal health care” that we’ll never get rid of, among other things.
You don’t advance your cause by losing elections. All these “third-party” nuts and “sit at home” “conservatives”, gave us a Democrat majority in 2006, how’s that working out?
Apr 24, 2008 - 7:42 am 5. Kenny:I find it vvvery interesting that Ron Paul was not only ignored in the mainstream media,but also mocked by many “journalists”. The media belongs to the corporations, and so do the career politicians. Lobbyists run Washington at the expense of the everyday American, so that corporations can have more power than they should. I am afraid that this time around, we are gonna suffer. Again. My goal, and idea, is that we become organized without the pundits on tv, and the career politicos. We now have such a magnificent tool to do so with the internet, in fact, I have posted a blog on myspace titled “demopublicans and republicrats” which is aimed at this very end: That WE THE PEOPLE, change our government from the inside out, quietly, and effectivly. We need to get organized, if you are concerned about the future of America, please come to my blog, and lets get started. Thank you for your considerations.
Apr 24, 2008 - 7:55 am 6. Max:Bob Barr is NOT the third party candidate that will make a difference. He would be lucky to register a percentage greater than the margin of error. He is, and always has been, a one-issue politician – privacy. Don’t get me wrong, I like his stance on this one issue… but we certainly could do a lot better if we are looking for an option outside of the 2 parties.
Apr 24, 2008 - 7:59 am 7. Roark:Bob Barr is Ron Paul lite. No thank you.
Apr 24, 2008 - 8:28 am 8. Wade:History shows that third party candidates, if even moderately successful, tend to cause the major party closer to the ideology of the third party candidate to fail in the general election. In addition, no third party candidate has ever won. So whether or not you like Bob Barr, he has very little chance of winning, and will likely do nothing but make an Obama presidency more possible.
Teddy Roosevelt- 1912
John Anderson- 1980
Ross Perot- 1996
Ralph Nader- 2000
Hitch your wagon to a star!
Those are just the 20th century spoilers…just my lil’ ol’ opinion…
Apr 24, 2008 - 11:42 am 9. Illinois:Maybe Barr can take enough votes away from McCain and save us from another four years of Bush policies that have bankrupted the country. It’s time for a change… a continuation of the last eight will do nothing for anybody not making 200,000 a year or tied to big oil!
Apr 24, 2008 - 11:45 am 10. Douglas:MarkD:
Even if John McCain wins the presidency he must deal with a Democratic Senate. The Democrats will not permit a Conservative judicial nominee to assume the bench.
No matter who wins only Liberal judicial nominees will get past the Senate.
Apr 24, 2008 - 12:46 pm 11. Increase Mather:I will vote for Barr. I will never vote for Captain Amnesty.
Apr 24, 2008 - 1:51 pm 12. George:If his main issues are civil liberties and privacy, with a smidge of the least polarizing views on the war and the border, what’s the point of running? Sounds like what anyone could come up with on their lunch break for an ‘I want to be President’ quip.
And this:
‘Maybe Barr can take enough votes away from McCain and save us from another four years of Bush policies that have bankrupted the country. It’s time for a change… a continuation of the last eight will do nothing for anybody not making 200,000 a year or tied to big oil!’
WOW, the MSM view verbatim…
Apr 24, 2008 - 2:31 pm 13. KatheM:I have been researching the claims of so many people that G W. Bush is responsible for our terrible economy. It is interesting that people make these statements and never back them up with facts. Do you truly believe that George W. runs this country all by himself? Do you think that he some how waives his magic wand and all of the Democrats in our government allows him to do what ever he wants? As I have matured I find myself less willing to jump on board with the MSM or anyone who is not willing to do the homework and support their statements. I do not believe that G. W. Bush is a saint or that he is our best president but I do think that he is getting blamed for things that are just not true.
Apr 24, 2008 - 2:36 pm 14. George:http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YmQ2MGU5MjZhMzk3ZjgyMmYyNzJhYWY5NDlmZjNiMTU=
The liberal ’side’ of the scale is often impossible to argue with, as it often has nothing to do with the betterment of this nation, but only pandering to one or two personal agendas. The rest is just what they absorb from the most basic of information. As most of it is so self-centered, two/three word blurbs like ‘war for oil’ or ‘religious right’ is all they bother the learn. Its no coincidence that ‘liberal’ to a politician means ‘liberal use of government’ is completely mistaken for a happy-go lucky beatnik ‘liberal’ lifestyle. Its really the party of the racist, socialist, and rich elite throwing bones of ‘hope’ to the people they actively do whatever they can to keep down in society. For some reason, many that latch on to this bandwagon that is the liberal left Democrat party have no idea why they follow the party in the first place.
Typically if you want to live a free lifestyle with all the options to make the most of your life regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation, then you’re actually a conservative.(as in conservative use of government). If I talk to someone about anything political and find out they’re an Obamaniac, I just stop right away because I may as well be talking to a zombie.
These people that are obsessed with a guy just because he chose to either put HOPE or CHANGE in big letters on posters and bumper stickers(as opposed to his name) and offer absolutely nothing else just aren’t worth arguing with. Unless you want to hear Bush is the devil(although look at congressional approval polls sometime), and all 9 or 10 three-word quips that make up their entire political knowledge base.
Apr 24, 2008 - 3:17 pm 15. Don:Sorry, he appears unpleasant and arrogant, he sounds preachy and one dimensional, and the only candidate he can hurt is McCain. I guess it’s that “let’s make them sorry they chose McCain” mentality that believes we need another Carter to punish the rest of us. Mr Barr needs to get a personality AND a sense of humor (He made himself look the ass in the Borat film . . .perhaps that was typecasting). Wake up arch conservatives, the damage an Obama (perhaps less so a Hillary . . .at least SHE has a pair) presidency could do might be unrepareable.
Apr 24, 2008 - 4:02 pm 16. David Thomson:Who is funding Bob Barr? Does he receive money from George Soros? How many left-wingers associated with the ACLU are willing to donate to a possible campaign? Barr keeps bad company. These are not people who wish the country well. They are actually self-hating Americans. Bob Barr needs to stop lying to himself. He is unwittingly being urged to harm the country.
Apr 24, 2008 - 4:50 pm 17. Illinois:George,
Nice FAUX News talking points. I support Obama because I oppose the war in Iraq, want universal health care, and believe he is better for the country. Bush and the REPUBLICAN Congress (before 2006) ran up the debt…not the Dems. Rather than name call (zombies) maybe you could actually believe that people do have different beliefs than you and maybe, just maybe, you are on the wrong side of the issues.
Apr 24, 2008 - 5:02 pm 18. Roark:Barr, like Paul, has the audacity to blame the USA for the islamists reign of terror. Barr is a tool.
Apr 24, 2008 - 6:13 pm 19. M. Simon:You for got to ask Barr about the Drug War. He was a total anti-drug warrior.
Would have loved to see him stumble on that.
Apr 24, 2008 - 8:19 pm 20. M. Simon:Illinois,
Lucky the Democrat Congress has turned around the bad spending habits of the previous Congress isn’t it? The budget is balanced now that they have eliminated all the wasteful spending of the Republicans.
Apr 24, 2008 - 8:27 pm 21. M. Simon:Yeah Illinois,
We need to punish the oil companies because there is too much oil. We need to make them stop selling it.
Apr 24, 2008 - 8:31 pm 22. mishu:Universal=socialist. If you want Canadian style health care, be prepared for income tax rates at 50% ($60,000/yr = rich in Canada), 15% sales tax, $4.50/gallon gas.
Apr 24, 2008 - 9:45 pm 23. mishu:Looks like congressional Dems are already backing away from socialized medicine.
Apr 24, 2008 - 10:16 pm 24. Illinois:M. Simon,
Hey I know. Lets let the oil companaies that have made the highest profits ever in the history of the companies complain that they need more tax breaks because times are so hard. Of course, the White House will be all to happy to oblige! As far as Congress goes…the current one needs to control spending too. It has all gotten out of hand. But, the Republicans sure showed a passion for spending when they had control. One side is just like the other.
Apr 25, 2008 - 6:55 am 25. George:“Illinois:
George,
Nice FAUX News talking points. I support Obama because I oppose the war in Iraq, want universal health care, and believe he is better for the country. Bush and the REPUBLICAN Congress (before 2006) ran up the debt…not the Dems. Rather than name call (zombies) maybe you could actually believe that people do have different beliefs than you and maybe, just maybe, you are on the wrong side of the issues.”
You support my point exactly. If you think Obama is going to do anything(or has any inkling of a plan to do so) about any of those things is quite naive. I obviously am conservative, more of a hybrid Republican/Libertarian-and believe in conservative use of government, spending tax dollars only to do the duties of government we need them to do-and not be the bloated, over regulating, and wasteful monster it has become.
I also do not hold the view that what represents the party now in congress and the White House are anywhere near the perfect examples of what the Republican/conservative party SHOULD be. I am completely disgusted that the war in Iraq is loaded with multi-billion dollar contractors making money hand over fist for even the most remedial services; many contracts without even having to answer for what they are billing the government for-and that nobody in either party ever even mentions doing anything about it.
Now that the liberal politicians are becoming so extreme to the left, the right unfortunately has moved way to far to the center as they are getting a taste of how good it is to feed off the taxpayer’s teat.
In my experience, most conservatives I know are angered that their party has become way to liberal and obsessed with wasting tax dollars and will pick apart any representative that is involved in their daily lives, even holding them accountable for years for voting on just one bill-while most liberals just want ‘their side’ to WIN! Particularly with the Obama supporters.
Apr 25, 2008 - 8:30 am 26. Tolbert:Bob is my former congressman and a neighbor.
I however won’t be voting for him.
No matter how tempted I might be to vote principal the truth of the matter is that a vote for Bob might mean an Obama presidency and I’m just not crazy enough to take that chance.
In spite of my dislike for McCain I will hold my nose and vote for him because the alernative is too odious to comptemplate.
Apr 25, 2008 - 11:45 am 27. John F Not Kerry:Bob who?
Apr 25, 2008 - 9:37 pm 28. Michael Lonie:Illinois,
One corporation, Exxon, has paid over the last few years annually an amount in taxes equal to the entire amount that the lower half of personal income tax payers pay, around $27 billion per annum. That does not include the payments by any other corporations, not just in the oil industry but in the economy as a whole. If you socialists kill that goose, and you are just the ones to do it, the gold won’t come any more. Is that too difficult for you to understand?
As for a nationalized health care industry, the only reason the Canadian one works, even as poorly as it does (it is flirting with a ten month waiting period for maternity beds), is because Canadians can come to the USA to get diagnostic and therapeutic services unavailable in their wonderful nationalized system. This is helped by the fact that most Canadians live not much more than an hour’s drive from the US border. Where do you suppose Americans will go for such services once our system is nationalized for the power and profit of leftist politicians and bureaucrats? The Cayman Islands perhaps? Tijuana?
The nostrums and proposed policies of the Left are worthless and counterproductive. The history of the 20th Century is a history of socialist catastrophe, in democratic countries as well as the ones where totalitarian socialism has ruled (look at the mess socialism made of Britain). The Left is immoral in its aspirations and actions, since it constantly causes disaster and never corrects its stupidly wrong ideas that led to the catastrophes in the first place.
Apr 26, 2008 - 9:41 pm 29. Border Drama:When I heard Bob Barr was considering running for President, I looked first of all at his views on border security. I was pleased to note that he deviates a little from most Libertarians and is for border security.
I am a conservative independent, and as such I am against corporate control of America. Border Security is the area in which there are more assaults upon our nation sovereignty by the big international corporations.
There are no perfect candidates, but I think Barr is 100% better than any of the three candidates now available from the Democrat and Republican parties. I will support him financially and inspirationally if he decides to run. I hope he will.
Apr 27, 2008 - 10:51 am 30. PMC:I almost want to say that anyone stupid enough to vote for a third party candidate in our election system deserves to be disenfranchised.
Almost.
Ever heard of a runoff election? Do you know why they exist?
We don’t have runoff elections in this country, *nominally*. But effectively our elections *ARE* runoff elections. Vote for one of the top two choices. That’s it!
A vote for the next Ross Perot that comes along is a HUGE MISTAKE.
The Republican party can’t win without the Ron Paul, Ross Perot, populist, protectionist illiterates.
The flipside is that the Democrats have their own Ross Perot, and his name is Ralph Nader.
Your campaign dollars are probably best spent on funding his campaign rather than funding McCain. And I wonder how many leftists would throw money at a third party candidate on the right just to damage chances of a conservative win in 08.
Apr 27, 2008 - 8:37 pm 31. bob barrs:[...] Party nomination for president. If so, he could make John McCain&39s bid for the White …http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/will-libertarian-bob-barr-be-the-spoiler-candidate-of-2008/Blue Bayou: Bob Barr&aposs strange new homeThe Episcopal revolt Main Nukes in Amarillo ? December [...]
Apr 28, 2008 - 5:47 pm 32. Mary in LA:I’ll take the Libertarian Party seriously when they quit focusing on the Presidency and start trying to elect Libertarians to local offices.
May 1, 2008 - 4:36 pm 33. Houston,TX:Why are there no Libertarian mayors, state Assemblymen, Congressmen, governors? Without a support base, a Libertarian President, even if elected by a fluke, would be helpless against a hostile Congress.
I’m voting for George (the commenter above) for president! I agree with everything he said.
May 26, 2008 - 4:13 pm 34. michael leone:I used to agree with that and would if obama was a blue dog democrat but he’s is a moderate socialist and would be horrible. I know i hate mccain on a lot of issues but the time is not right, if it was liberman yes i would vote for bob barr but not obama
Jun 21, 2008 - 6:17 pm 35. Tom Chats (not real name):I’m a Republican that VOTED for Barr.
Take that McCain! Your pick of Palin was so out-of-line! I wish Duncan Hunter and Ron Paul had a chance for the nomination.
Obama is going to mess it all up!
Nov 12, 2008 - 6:19 pm