Marc Gallagher writes at Liberty Maven:
Don’t get me wrong, I’m voting for the guy, and I think every other liberty-seeking individual should do so as well. However, by just about every measure the Bob Barr campaign has not lived up to expectations. I suppose it’s not over quite yet, but with only a week left before election day it is difficult not to admit that the campaign is a failure. The cause of the failure is not entirely the Barr campaign’s fault, but some of it certainly is.
Prior to the Libertarian Convention I was very excited at the prospect of Bob Barr being the party’s nominee. I figured he would be the heir apparent to Ron Paul. I figured he would garner all of Paul’s whole-hearted activist support while bringing in high numbers of voters unhappy with Barry O’Messiah and John McChameleon. As I watched Barr win the nomination at the Libertarian Convention on CSPAN I was energized anew after the deflated feeling I felt when it was obvious Ron Paul would not get the GOP nomination (not that I ever truly thought that would happen, I had hope though).
Little did I know that would be the high point of my energy for the Barr campaign. In the days and weeks since, I’ve grown more and more despondent. Many circumstances out of Barr’s control mounted against him.
First, he never had the support of purist Libertarians. Some of them chose to give him a chance. Others felt they could never support him and were quite vocal about it. Such is the nature of the Libertarian Party. Barr kept making the point in interviews that his party was not a “debating society”, but a “legitimate political party” worthy of serious consideration. The radical wing revolt against Barr demonstrated otherwise. The battle between Libertarian reformers (like Barr) and radicals will continue to the detriment of the party. There is no end in sight.
The nomination of Chuck Baldwin by the Constitution Party also hurt Barr. If the Constitution Party had nominated someone like Alan Keyes instead of Baldwin, Barr would have been the likely recipient of Ron Paul’s endorsement. Baldwin’s nomination ensured that Paul’s devotees would be split. The arguments between the Baldwin-ites and Barr-ians was predictable and sad. Likewise, if someone like Mike Gravel or Wayne Root were nominated, Baldwin would have likely earned Paul’s endorsement. I won’t venture to guess what would have occurred had Mary Ruwart been the Libertarian nominee other than to say the purists would have certainly backed her. Unfortunately, the success of Barr’s campaign was directly dependent on winning over Ron Paul supporters and a Ron Paul endorsement. That, or Ron Paul agreeing to be the VP on the Libertarian ticket with Barr, which was an obvious non-starter for the Republican Paul.
Instead the Barr campaign alienated both Ron Paul and his supporters in an effort to “show” how principled he was for the libertarian way by not showing up for a “vote third party” endorsement press conference from Ron Paul. This decision eventually caused Paul to announce his support for Baldwin. One wonders now if Bob Barr and Ron Paul still consider each other friends.
In my view both Barr and Paul are to blame for this squabble at the expense of presenting a unifying liberty message. Barr was right that Paul advocating splitting the vote four ways was no way to show leadership for liberty, especially since two of the candidates could be considered more socialist than Obama. But, Barr was quite wrong in choosing to not appear at Paul’s press conference after promising he would be there. Barr could have attended and then clarified his own position during his own press conference. Admittedly, for a candidate being hammered for not being a “real” libertarian, Barr was doomed no matter what his decision was. It may be hard for some Paul supporters to accept, but with the press conference fiasco, it was the egos of both Barr and Paul that obstructed a clear view of the liberty message.
John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin also took a bite out of Bob Barr’s potential for support. Barr moderates his libertarian message with conservatism in order to appeal to disgruntled Republicans with a love of limited government. McCain’s selection of a perceived “libertarian-leaning” conservative like Palin (however misguided that perception is) tempered the potential for Barr to win over those wavering Republicans.
Finally, the economic “crisis” is another element hurting the Barr campaign. Sure, Barr was one of the only candidates denouncing bailouts. Unfortunately, his voice was drowned out by the magnitude of the news itself. The media’s only interest seemed to be what Obama and McCain thought about the crisis rather than some “minor” party candidate with no chance of winning. Instead of the media narrative being “Bob The Spoiler”, which could have been a major story if it ever got off the ground, we get “Joe The Plumber” fooling everyone into believing that Obama is a socialist and McCain is not. Barr, to his credit, tackled this topic directly in his most recent column at Townhall.com. At least he is still fighting.
As I’ve said, I’m quite happily voting for Bob Barr on November 4th and I hope you do too. But I’m not so blind to realize that the campaign for which I once had such high hopes never came close to meeting those hopes. I expect Bob Barr privately feels the same way right now.
Once election day 2008 is history we liberty seekers may be forced to accept the Barr campaign as a failure. The measure of success at this point is whether Barr beats the record number of votes by any Libertarian presidential candidate in history. At this point in the campaign that should not be in question.
Indeed, the Bob Barr campaign of 2008 could have done and been so much more.
Scroll down to next to last paragraph and the one before that.
Here’s how it’s playing in some non LP circles….
http://gawker.com/5070108/jack-shafer-voting-for-nutcase
Another example:
http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/cockburn-gets-it-all-wrong/
1% would be far more than a million.
I don’t think Barr will close in on either.
Plus, voting for Barr could be interpreted as voting for the LP brand more than voting for Barr himself. That’s probably how most people see it.
Except for those who will see it as a signal that the LP should run more Barr-like candidates in the future. ‘Tis a perplexing paradox.
1% would be far more than a million.
Plus, voting for Barr could be interpreted as voting for the LP brand more than voting for Barr himself. That’s probably how most people see it.
Here’s how it’s playing in some non LP circles….
http://gawker.com/5070108/jack-shafer-voting-for-nutcase
You know, I admit that the guy I voted for last week – Barr – made some pretty dumb mistakes, but the LP presidential ticket has received more earned media than any ticket in their history, so not all is lost.
Sorry, but you’re dead wrong about that, Joey. And here’s why:
Bob Barr’s flipflopping on the issues.Barr continues to flip flip on the issues as much as a fish flips in and out of the water in a fish bowl. He has never retreated from his pro-Drug War position, saying that he only supports the Drug War at the state — rather than at the federal — level. This was done to assert his favoring of “states’ rights,” which is a bullshit argument. Either you’re for the Drug War at all levels or you’re not. Case closed.
He even flip-flopped on the Defense of Marriage Act issue as well. At the Convention, he “apologized” for his support for DOMA, only to subsequently come out and say that he would partly repeal the law if he were elected to the presidency, keeping the “good part” in the bill.
He was for the recent bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but then backpedaled from that because of our criticisms of him on the issue. (His support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,382881,00.html)
He was even on Fox News a while back, calling for America’s need to restore “people’s faith in government.” Um, excuse me? Who the hell does he think he is?
Bob Barr praises the late Senator Jesse Helms. Barr issued a press release eulogizing the vile, repugnant late Senator Jesse Helms who has been known through his history as a racist, evil bigot.
Barr’s snubbing of Ron Paul.Oh, and let’s not forget Barr’s snubbing of Ron Paul at his third party unity press conference weeks ago, which quickly become known as Snubgate.
Shall I continue?
The LP presidential ticket has done more to harm the liberty movement becaue of this vile antics. This marriage of Libertarians and Republicans in the LP has quickly and assuredly killed the Party.
As far as I’m concerned, Dauben, your Party is an embarrassment. It is the reason why I’m no longer a member of it.
Even if you cannot stand his glasses, Barr has done more for the Libertarian Party in several months by getting on some major news shows. Where’s your Boston Tea Party been? Not even close.
Do you even bother doing your homework before you make these swipes against my party the BTP and our presidential ticket?
The BTP has done more to build a grassroots movement this year than the LP has ever done in its 30-plus year history. We formed 12 (now temporarily 11) state affiliates. We have over 560 members on the Party’s website and over 640 on the Facebook group (which I created, btw).
Charles Jay appeared on Fox News, in print, and even in the third party debates at a small handful of venues. Your candidate Bob Barr (sure, he’s appeared on Fox News too and in print) didn’t even snap a finger and agreed to appear at any of the debates.
What does he have to show for it? I mean, really, Joey?
So yes, I’ll give you a few of the things about Barr’s missteps, but if not for Barr, you wouldn’t see this election worry about the LP.
You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking!
The LP isn’t even a relevant party to begin with. It’s a joke of a party. The next time it holds a convention, let it be held at Barnum & Bailey’s Circus events.
If it weren’t for Barr, the LP might have had a snot’s chance in hell of getting anywhere. But, thanks to Barr, the LP base is shrinking and deflating like a tire.
Before long, there won’t be any air left in that tire.
For once we might – just might – crack over 1 million votes.
Riiiiiight, and I’m Ghenghis Khan reincarnated.
I’m predicting that your party will get a fraction of a mil. It won’t get anywhere past 1%.
Yours in Liberty,
Todd Andrew Barnett
Cue Andy, Gary and/or Jake in 10…9….8…
I had two other reasons for failure that I should have included in the article…
1 – Ducking the Third Party Debates using the age old “scheduling conflict” excuse.
2 – Another that isn’t the fault of Barr… The fear many have of Obama’s socialism is likely going to shift disgruntled potential conservative voters from Barr to McCain.
I thought the campaign did ‘ok’ with ballot access. Fingers can be pointed at them starting late in some areas… but given the situation and the idiotic court rulings it turns out that Barr’s name will appear before more voters (on a percentage basis) than any other Third Party candidate.
The many media appearances were/are by far the best part of the campaign. Those can be chalked up to being “lucky” rather than “good” thanks to Barr’s name recognition and history in the GOP.
I still hold out hope for him breaking that million vote barrier, but now it’s certainly far from a sure thing.
Enjoy,
Marc
the ballot access petitioning work was left to the last minute in many places, including the turning in of papers. When has it been managed this poorly?
Well, the LP has had 46 or more ballot lines since 1988, and 49 or more since 1992. The last candidate to have fewer ballot lines was Bergland in 1984. In terms of the percentage of voters who will have him on their ballot as an option, Barr is probably doing better than Ron Paul did in ’88, but worse than every ticket since then.
Why wasn’t that fundraising system turned on full blast for Barr/Root 08?
It’s a list of Republican donors, so would probably translate poorly to an LP campaign. It would probably most serve to kill the list if Barr even tried that.
You know, I admit that the guy I voted for last week – Barr – made some pretty dumb mistakes, but the LP presidential ticket has received more earned media than any ticket in their history, so not all is lost.
Even if you cannot stand his glasses, Barr has done more for the Libertarian Party in several months by getting on some major news shows. Where’s your Boston Tea Party been? Not even close.
So yes, I’ll give you a few of the things about Barr’s missteps, but if not for Barr, you wouldn’t see this election worry about the LP.
For once we might – just might – crack over 1 million votes.
That helps people down the ballot and in state parties such as Texas, where I’m from. It’s a huge boost to have such a media-savvy ticket.
“Instead the Barr campaign alienated both Ron Paul and his supporters in an effort to ‘show’ how principled he was for the libertarian way by not showing up for a ‘vote third party’ endorsement press conference from Ron Paul.”
How was Barr’s behavior in any way principled? And how was Barr’s campaign manager guy Shane Cory telling one of Ron’s people to go f#ck himself in any way principled? Snubgate is one of the most bizarre elements in the campaign.
Other sources of disappointment to many LP folks I know: the ballot access petitioning work was left to the last minute in many places, including the turning in of papers. When has it been managed this poorly? There were a couple of years of 50 state ballot access. This year isn’t one of them.
There was also an expectation of a $40 million campaign. Where did that go? I know Barr’s PAC was contributing money to GOP opponents of LP candidates around the country this year. Why wasn’t that fundraising system turned on full blast for Barr/Root 08?
kthx
Trent, Paulie, thanks for the quick responses.
I’m drafting up the article now, and will send it to you guys first.
This will get to you guys before it gets posted on my newspaper’s Web site.
I suspect Joey is referring to the more libertarian elements of the CP,who’ve probably had just about enough of the protectionism, anti-porn, anti-gambling planks.
Joey,
Email it to us. [email protected]
Joey,
I haven’t received anything from you.
Did you send it to [email protected]
?
You guys ought to see what’s unfolding in Texas regarding the Constitution Party. It’s definitely an exciting time to be a part of a growing party (I’m a Libertarian, by the way), but at the same time it’s neat to watch with a reporter’s viewpoint (I’m a newspaper editor and blogger) of a particular “faction” wanting to “take over” the CP.
Like it’ll happen, but still, I’m going to be giving this news to Eric Dondero if the IPR guys won’t take it.
click on Thumbs Up so the article remains visible:
http://www.nolanchart.com/article5275.html
Also, I would like to add my wife left early work to vote for Ralph Nader. I could not be any prouder especially sine she waited in line for 2 hours here in South Florida.
She told me 90% of the people in line were African American as they have been since early voting started last week which is a good indication who is going to win the election.
Howard Stern made the perfect experiment proving this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyvqhdllXgU
a very perceptive and even-handed analysis of the situation.