Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Bob Barr, “running for president on the Libertarian line, could play a crucial role in winning Obama the presidency,” The Politico reports. Plouffe said Barr “could play a particularly large role in two states: Alaska and Georgia.” He said he thinks Barr could get up to eight percent of the vote in Alaska, putting the usually Republican state in play.
Obama campaign manager says Barr could swing election
June 26th, 2008 · 12 Comments
Filed Under: Libertarian Party
12 responses so far ↓
1 paulie cannoli // Jun 26, 2008 at 4:36 am
Wishful thinking, perhaps…
In fact, Barr may actually help McCain.
That is, he may cause more people to vote who otherwise would not have who will end up voting for McCain than he will take votes that would otherwise have gone to McCain. Also, he will get some votes that would have likely gone to Obama: in fact, at least one recent poll shows close to even split on those.
With or without Barr, I think the Democrats will win – unless the election gets cancelled. The chances of that just went up, since as everyone knows, only Bushes and Clintons get to potus anymore.
2 G.E. // Jun 26, 2008 at 7:38 am
Alaska: A real electoral prize.
3 yaktivist // Jun 26, 2008 at 10:29 am
I don’t know how she will do in Alaska, but that other former GA US Rep running for President is close to winning the Green Party Nomination, and should be able to compete with Obama for votes in the district that sent her to Congress a few times.
Obama’s recent flops regarding FISA and campaign finance might flip a few voters to McKinney or Nader.
Can’t see why McKinney isn’t picking up some of the anti-misogyny protest votes of Clinton supporters. CongressMEN with the same radical positions McKinney holds were not abandoned by The Democratic Party, and it is doubtful they would be viewed too harshly if they got into a minor physical confrontation with a police officer (they might even be affectionately seen as “gutsy”)
Still could be a few more big surprises this political season.
4 richardwinger // Jun 26, 2008 at 11:51 am
Unfortunately, Cynthia McKinney won’t be on the ballot in Georgia, although she will file to have her write-ins counted in Georgia. Georgia is one of 5 states in which Nader could never get on the ballot either. No statewide petitions have succeeded in Georgia since 2000, when Pat Buchanan got on.
5 Mike Theodore // Jun 26, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I think they are all under the assumption that this will be a close election. Obama will win. It won’t be close.
It doesn’t matter what we do. What we do in an Obama Administration is what we’ve done in every administration.
6 paulie cannoli // Jun 26, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Obama will win. It won’t be close.
Yep.
7 Fred Church Ortiz // Jun 26, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Obama will win. It won’t be close.
As of today, I’d agree. But it’s risky business to underestimate the democrats’ ability to lose an election.
8 Mike Theodore // Jun 26, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Especially since the war with Iran goes and the flag furling begins. McCain will project himself as the national Commander “Big Brother” like guy to fight off the hordes of evil.
We’ve begun a blockade, BTW.
9 paulie cannoli // Jun 26, 2008 at 10:19 pm
economy circling the drain + lies leading to unpopular war exposed = change of party occupying oval orifice
10 Fred Church Ortiz // Jun 26, 2008 at 10:21 pm
That’s the rule paulie, and don’t think I’m ignoring the plain facts. I think if November came tomorrow Obama would take 60% easy. They haven’t got anything to stick to him yet, though.
11 Peter Orvetti // Jun 27, 2008 at 2:26 am
As for Alaska being not much of an “electoral prize”, if Gore had somehow won it in 2000 (which of course was pretty unlikely), he would have won the electoral vote 270-268. (I’m guessing that D.C. defector would not have withheld her vote in that instance.)
12 Peter Orvetti // Jun 27, 2008 at 2:30 am
I think there’s a good chance Obama could win the popular vote by a wide margin while losing the electoral college, if McCain wins narrow victories in Florida and Ohio, which is very possible. We hear a lot about Al Gore’s 544,000-vote plurality in 2000, but less about the fact that, if Kerry has received 119,000 more votes in Ohio in ‘04, he would have been elected president while still losing the popular vote by about 2,893,000. It’s very possible Obama could outdistance McCain by a couple million votes and still lose.
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