Despite his disappointing overall showing, Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Bob Barr managed to garner sufficient votes in both North Carolina (15 electoral votes) and Indiana (11 electoral votes) to deprive Senator John McCain of what might have been the slenderest of majorities--assuming that all those who voted for Barr would have still come out, and would have voted for McCain en mass. OK, it would have been a tiny mass, but it was critical. I haven't checked to see if there was a similar Nader effect anywhere yet. Third Parties do make a difference--whether or not it is always the difference they are looking for.

I was worrying about how to build an effective freedom-based political party on the ashes of the Libertarian Party. I should have know that with Wayne Allyn Root on the case, I needn't have worried. Independent Political Report cites Root's interview with the NYT: The Libertarians have been a debate society since 1971. No one ever thought about winning. And then I came along. … Bob Barr and I are going to get a million to three million votes this year. In 2012 I expect to duplicate Ross Perot’s number of 19 million. In 2016 I expect to be a credible third-party candidate, and in 2020 I plan to win. Remember that Alec Baldwin used to say he'd go to Canada if Dubya won the election? I making sure my visa hasn't expired in 2020.

... could best be found (or lost) in the Bobster's home state. Insider Advantage had him at 7.6% in May. Insider Advantage had him at 5.6% and Zogby had him at 8% in June. Rasmussen had him at 5% in mid-July; Insider Advantage reported him at 5% by month's end. Rasmussen had Barr dropping to 3% in August. The highest Barr appears in any September polls is 3% in Strategic Vision and 1% in Public Opinion Strategies. Rasmussen, Insider Advantage, American Research Group, and Survey USA all found that Barr had completely disappeared from the radar , polling at less than 1% where he show up at all. This is clearly a Bob Barr collapse, and not a Libertarian collapse in Georgia, as the countervailing case of Libertarian Senate candidate Allen Buckley proves: Buckley was not even included in polling questions until August, when Mellman Group showed him at 3%. During the month of September (aided by a series of debate and forum appearances), Buckley has been placed at 2% (Rasmussen), 4%...

George Phillies provides the following list of upcoming campaign events for Ralph Nader: Sept. 24th, 2pm Nader/Gonzalez Rally Morgantown, WV West Virginia University, “Gluck Theater”, Mountain Lair Student Union Suggested Contribution: $10/ $5 students (312) 208-4687 or events@votenader.org Sept. 24th, 7:30pm Nader/Gonzalez Rally Pittsburgh, PA University of Pittsburgh, David Lawrence Hall, Room # 120 Suggested Contribution:$10/ $5 students (504) 319-9312 or events@votenader.org Sept. 26th, 2pm Nader/Gonzalez Rally Los Angeles, CA USC, Embassy Room- Davidson Building 3415 S. Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA 90089 Suggested Contribution: $10/ $5 students (714) 803-9676 or events@votenader.org Sept. 26th, 9:30pm Bill Maher Show/ Debate After Party with Ralph Nader Hollywood, CA Social Hollywood Club 6525 West Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90028 Contribution: $25-$100 Contact Rob: (202)471-5833 or events@votenader.org Sept. 27th, 3pm Na...

... is that he believes in the right of the State to kill prisoners, as long as the State is careful about it. According to the AP , Bob Barr wrote recently to the Clemency Board in Georgia on behalf of convicted killer Troy Davis: Barr wrote the board Wednesday saying he is "a strong believer in the death penalty as an appropriate and just punishment" but said the proper level of fairness and accuracy required for the ultimate punishment has not been met in Davis' case. Maybe part of this non-Libertarian belief in the State's right to execute prisoners is part of the reason that Bob Barr is polling at 2% in North Carolina, whereas Dr Michael Munger--a death penalty opponent--is garnering 6%. Food for thought, eh?

You can go back and forth over the Sarah Barracuda resume and her handling by the press, but it's clear that John McCain scored a twofer with her nomination: 1) Throwing the Obama camp into dissarray; and 2) Eliminating the serious threat that Bob Barr would draw off sufficient conservatives to bulk up the Libertarian vote and perhaps cost McCain a battleground state or two. Here's the evidence: In Georgia , Bob Barr's June/July high of 6-8% is now down to the 2-3% range. Meanwhile, Libertarian Senatorial candidate Allen Buckley is moving up to 4%. In New Hampshire , Bob Barr's 7-11% in July has dwindled to 2% in September (with Nader eclipsing him at 4%), while Libertarian Senatorial candidate Ken Blevens is also moving up to 3%. In Arizona , where Bob Barr had polled as high as 7% in June he's now down to 1%. In Ohio , where some polls had Bob Barr as high as 6-7% in June, he is now struggling to hold 1%. Why is this happening? Barr's entire campaign stra...

Well, it makes as much sense as the last LNC meeting or Bob Barr choosing to use September 11 to praise the Bush administration. Somewhere (over at Libertarian Republican , if you must know), Eric Dondero is chortling over this, asserting that Barr's endorsement of Dubya's reaction to 9/11 is evidence that the LP has finally gone mainstream . Simultaneously, Barr campaign mangler Russ ["Where the hell did Angela Keaton put all Ross Perot's old charts"] Verney can be found quoted over at Last Free Voice extolling Barr's incredible leadership, which amounts [if you actually read the post] to Verney congratulating Barr for showing leadership by following his campaign mangler's orders. You can also read comments there from the new petition circulating to remove Bob Barr as the LP Presidential candidate. Who'd have thunk that Angela Keaton had the time to do all that after she finished being a sexual predator at the LNC?

Or, at least, Ron Paul's peeps were mean to Bob Barr's peeps, when all Barr ever wanted to do was have Dr. No on his ticket as VP. Robert Kraus, acting Executive Director of the Libertarian Party, has had Andrew Davis post a long missive excoriating the Ron Paul folks for treating the Barr campaign poorly : I have been hearing a lot from many LP Members about concerns over Bob Barr not attending Ron Paul's press conference. However, before you form an opinion, perhaps you may want to consider the facts and not rely on blogs for your news. Of course, Kraus is posting this (get ready for it) . . . on a blog. Kraus then proceeds on his litany of abuses suffered at the hands of the Ron Paul movement, which basically boils down [read it yourself] to: Wah. Wah. Mean old Dr. Paul wouldn't accept the Libertarian nomination. Wah. Wah. Mean old Dr. Paul wouldn't endorse us. Wah. Wah. Mean old Dr. Paul only wants to promote his book. This is then followed by a very int...

Exactly why Ron Paul, who scored over a million votes in the GOP primary season, should agree to play second fiddle to Bob Barr--who has yet to raise a dollar for each person who voted for Paul--is unclear to me. But you can read the actual letter here . Let me get this straight: Angela Keaton supposedly live-blogs about the charges against her in Executive Session of the LNC and she must be branded, tortured, and expelled. Bob Barr illegally attempts to replace his legally nominated VP candidate (who admittedly is a homophobic, racist nut) in favor of a man who is not a member of his own political party, and we're supposed to rally behind him? I sense the genius of that great parliamentarian M Carling behind this masterpiece of strategy.

I wish I was kidding. Here are just two extended WAR quotes from his Reason Magazine interview that are parsed and filleted with clinical precision at Classically Liberal : The most dangerous thing you should know about Barack Obama is that I don’t know a single person at Columbia that knows him... I mean, when I went to Columbia, the black kids were all at like tables going "Black Power!" We used to walk by and go, "What the hell are they talking about." And they didn't associate with us and we didn't associate with them. So if you track down a couple of black students, they'll probably know him. But nobody white's ever heard of this guy. It's quite amazing. Nobody remembers him. They don't remember him sitting in class.... I say the whole problem with America is we are racist against people because of the color of their skin. We're helping people because they're black. We're helping people because they're minority. We'r...

Truth hurts : Issues : (1995–2007) Trying to control the faith, sexuality, reproduction, drug use, and national allegiance of every single American. (2007–) Aw, Fuck it.

As we move closer to Election Day, Libertarian candidates are starting to show up in the polls. This is not necessarily because they are suddenly gaining adherents from zero, but because the pollsters have started to include them. Michigan's Libertarian Senatorial candidate Scotty Boman, for example, has been working away, but only recently has his name been included in polling in the State's 7th and 9th Congressional Districts , where he is pulling down 2% and 3% respectively. Statewide polls still have not included Boman, but are consistently showing a 5% vote for Other , a category including Boman, Green Party candidate Harley Mikkelson, Taxpayer Party candidate Mike Nikitin, and Natural Law Party candidate Douglas Dern. Mikkelson, Nikitin, and Dern, however, only score a combined 1-point-something in the 7th District and a combined 3-point-something in the 9th, which suggests that Boman's numbers are probably running in the 2-3% range across the State. Bob Barr, on t...

I got the standard daily fundraising email from the Barr campaign today, in which Russ Verney first whined about the judge keeping Bob Barr out of last night's joint appearance by Barack Obama and John McCain, and then (naturally) got around to asking me for more money. Supposedly to get Barr into the big Presidential debates, but let's get down to cases: Call me a bit grumpy over the matter, but I think it's time that we break that winning streak by getting Bob Barr into the national debates. I don't think that I stand alone on this issue. As a matter of fact, I know that I'm not alone. You agree with me and that's a good start, but a report that I read late Friday night led me to believe that we can do a bit better. According to the polling firm, Zogby International, a MAJORITY of Americans want Bob Barr included in the national debates! The poll showed that 55% of likely voters want Bob Barr included in the debates. Of the respondents, 69% of independents ...

Independent Political Report notes in a round-up of poll numbers that Bob Barr is pulling down 3% in North Carolina and "just under" 5% in Texas. Although it has generally escaped comment, this is the latest evidence that down-ticket Libertarians are carrying Bob Barr on their coat-tails , and not the other way around. Let's think this through. Here are the most recent numbers for the three prominent LP candidates in North Carolina : Senate: Chris Cole--7% Governor: Mike Munger--5% President: Bob Barr--3% North Carolina, by the way, is where we have Bob Barr on record claiming in a radio interview that his candidacy would prove to be a boon for (wait for it) . . . down-ticket Republicans . In Texas, the Libertarian Party has been surging into the 5%-range across the State for months, prompting GOP pressure on LP candidates to drop out of State House races, because in 5 or 6 key districts the LP vote may cause previously safe Republican seats to be in jeopardy. The ...

I'll let Zogby International speak for itself: More than half of likely voters nationwide - 55% - want Republican-turned-Libertarian Bob Barr to participate in presidential debates this fall, while nearly half - 46% - said they think Ralph Nader should be allowed into the on-stage fray, the latest Zogby Interactive polling shows. Among political independents, 69% said Barr should be at a lectern with Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, and a majority of Republicans and Democrats agreed. Among Democrats, 52% said they think Barr should participate, while 50% of Republicans agreed. Thirty-nine percent of Democrats and 41% of Republicans said they did not think Barr should be included in the debates. The younger the respondent, the more likely they were to say that Barr should be included. Those at each end of the philosophical spectrum were more supportive of the idea of including Barr and Ralph Nader in the debates, while those in the middle were less supportive. As f...

Oh, no, you have to go and make me think again . I'm only going to deal with two paragraphs right this instance (sort of my protest for being drawn away from meaningless athletic competition with possibly the ugliest American uniforms ever worn): So I believe in free marketing when it is small and there is enough give and take among all parties that some symbiotic balance is achieved between all parties. Then individual talent has a chance to move a species forward up the evolutionary ladder…. But when the market gets too big or it merges together so that only one man can control its direction, then I think it needs to be split up and returned back to where every entity must fight for its own existence….. What you make me think of here is the extremely persuasive argument of historian Fernand Braudel that economic activity should really be considered in three distinct albeit interacting spheres. Braudel was looking primarily at the early emergence of capitalism in the 15-18th Cent...

Today is August 11, 2008. I usually don’t mention the date, but I wanted to make explicitly clear that today, on August 11, I received my June-July copy of the LP News . Better late than never, you might think. Then again: not . You see, it was sort of like opening a time capsule, and finding out with a sense of delayed embarrassment what the world was like in the 1950s. In his address to his party as LP presidential nominee, Bob Barr makes some fascinating comments: Just as a rising tide lifts all boats, so will a strong presidential campaign for the hundreds of Libertarian candidates across the nation…. This year is sure to be a banner year for the Libertarian Party not just at the very top of the ticket, but for all of the other down-ticket candidates too. When voters go to the polls in November to cast a vote for Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr, they will be more inclined to vote for other Libertarian candidates for local and statewide races…. This is why it is so important...

This in from Chris Cole, Libertarian candidate for US Senate in North Carolina [who is currently polling 4-6% against Liddy Dole and Kay Hagan]: Hi, Steve, I was reading your comments about the party HQ forgetting about the rest of the LP ticket, and thought that you would be interested in my experience with Barr on this matter. He was a guest on my hometown talk radio station, with a host who is actually sympthetic with a great deal of libertarianism. He introduced Barr as a "true conservative", a title that Barr did not object to. Then during his interview, Barr said that Republicans should support him because he would bring out voters who would support the rest of the candidates on the Republican ticket. No mention of the LP or of other candidates on the LP ticket. The station was WBT in Charlotte, and the host was Keith Larson. Barr was also on their morning news, on which he was introduced as a "traditional Republican." Again, he gave no correction. I wrote ...

. . . or else I should get a check from the Barr campaign as a consultant ( I hear they send out a lot of them ). OK, so I created Forty Bucks for 4 Libertarians on July 4 , and it got picked up by (near as I can tell) about two dozen blogs. I don't even know how much it actually raised, because there was obviously no way to keep track of it. Now I go to the (static and often dysfunctional) Libertarian Party website to find this: Plus a letter from Bill Redpath [who is he, again? I keep forgetting.]: Dear Fellow Libertarian: Eight States. Eight Days. Eighty thousand dollars.... Why is ballot access important, and why should you donate to our "80 for 8 in 8" drive? At first I was thinking copyright infringement, but my wife pointed out that what I was really looking at was lack of imagination and a complete misunderstanding of the way a national party is built.

I was reading this rather bland Political Machine report on Senator Barack Obama agreeing to three debates with Senator John McCain (sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates), when it occurred to me: it may well be in Barack Obama's best interest to accept Bob Barr and Ralph Nader in these debates . Sound counter-intuitive? Perhaps, but then again... Here's what the article notes in a kind of conventional wisdom passing way: The agreement by the Obama campaign to three debates carries a risk for the candidate. Obama is a relative newcomer to national politics, and the election is becoming a referendum on his ability to fulfill the requirements of the office of president. Three debates means more chances for a mistake that could cost him the full confidence of the voting public. The same is true for McCain; but he will enter the debates with lower expectations than Obama, and a better sense among voters of what to expect from him. Both candidates will try to lowe...