Comments on: Libertarian Barr ‘was a spoiler in North Carolina’

By: johncjackson

johncjackson — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:32:31 +0000

I doubt Badnarik would write a love letter to Jess Helms. Maybe that made a difference.

By: Steven Druckenmiller

Steven Druckenmiller — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:14:04 +0000

This suggests that a real libertarian candidate could have earned even more votes

Like Michael Badnarik?

Oh wait….

By: paulie cannoli

paulie cannoli — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:25:08 +0000

Rock on!

Do you have that kind of breakdown for all the states?

By: richardwinger

richardwinger — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:21:24 +0000

Barr did well in North Carolina. His .60% in that state is the best in the party’s history for president in North Carolina. The NC percentage for the Libertarian presidential candidate has been: 1976 .13%; 1980 .52%; 1984 .17%; 1988 not on ballot; 1992 .20%; 1996 .35%; 2000 .48%; 2004 .34%.

By: citizen1

citizen1 — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:34:43 +0000

I voted for Baldwin as a write-in in CT. If he had not been a registered write-in I would have probably voted for Nader. If I had to choose between BO and JM, I would either not have voted or possibly flipped a coin or something.

By: JimDavidson

JimDavidson — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:27:58 +0000

I do think Chris’s point, that Barr was unpopular among libertarian voters, is significant. This suggests that a real libertarian candidate could have earned even more votes.

By: Trent Hill

Trent Hill — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:04:20 +0000

I was going to suggest that Strom Thurmond, in 1948, probably covered the spread…but he didnt…

By: pdsa

pdsa — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:07:02 +0000

“Barr was a spoiler in North Carolina after all.”

Barr was no such thing, and it serves no purpose to believe in stupid hypothesis.

By: Chris Cole

Chris Cole — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:03:40 +0000

You are overanalyzing this. “Balance of power” merely refers to the hypothetical possibility that the voters for the “spoiler” candidate could have tipped the election the other way, in the absence of that candidate. That is certainly the case with barr’s vote in North Carolina. However, the other statewide LP candidates, while not gaining balance of power, received five- to six-times as many votes here, and Barr was very unpopular among NC Libertarians, because of his continuing support of Republican candidates, even with Libertarian opponents.

By: pdsa

pdsa — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:47:38 +0000

Absolutely ridiculous assertion. Do the math.

First, assume that none of the persons who voted for Barr would have written-in a presidential choice. (highly unlikely)

Obama won by 14,192 votes.
Barr got 25,722 votes

For a tie, the Barr voters need to have chosen McCain by a margin of
19,957 to 5,765;
OR
77.6% to 22.4%

Again, this is only if persons voting for Barr would have voted for either McCiain or Obama in his absence from the poll, and not written in another choice, which is very improbable.

This article had four authors: Rob Christensen, Ryan Teague Beckwith, Mark Johnson and Ben Niolet. The question should be whether the four graduated all the way from 6th grade at Bugtussel Elementary, or whether the Bodine/Clampet families home-tutored them in ‘rithmetic. Ciphering is tough, even with your shoes off, when the numbers are greater than 20.