In his column in New Mexico’s Rio Grande Sun, Robert Trapp, the newspaper’s publisher, writes, “We heard so much talk about ‘change’ in the just-concluded presidential campaign that I decided I would do just that — vote for change. I voted for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr. Of course Bob didn’t have a chance. … The first presidential candidate I was old enough to vote for was Harry S. Truman in 1948. He wasn’t supposed to win, but he did. … Well of course Bob Barr wouldn’t win last Tuesday. But voting for him and his brand of ‘change’ made me feel sort of like I did in 1948 when I cast my absentee ballot for the presidential candidate everyone said was a loser. It felt good. Really good. And I think that’s important when you vote.”
Publisher compares Barr vote to vote for Truman
November 15th, 2008 · 5 Comments
Filed Under: Libertarian Party
5 responses so far ↓
1 paulie cannoli // Nov 15, 2008 at 11:57 am
That sounds like a rather disingenuous comparison. Voting for McCain, who most people expected to lose, would have been more like voting for Truman in ‘48. He isn’t the sitting president, but he represents the party many people are blaming for the country’s problems, and was behind in the polls (but not single digits like Barr). Voting for Barr was more like voting for Strom Thurmond in ‘48, only more so.
2 George Dance // Nov 15, 2008 at 2:32 pm
You miss the point of the comparison. Truman, in Trapp’s view, was the last straight talker elected to President, in the last days before presidential elections became television events. He found the Barr campaign to be similar. The McCain campaign? Please: for all his blather about “straight talk,” the McCain candidacy was an artificial media creation; they constructed him, and just as quickly tore him down again.
3 paulie cannoli // Nov 15, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I’m more convinced that Thurmond spoke what was on his mind than that Truman did.
4 Ross Levin // Nov 15, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing is irrelevant, I guess…
5 G.E. // Nov 16, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Truman was the greatest single-incident mass murderer in all of human history, and #2, too.
Bob Barr has his faults. But as far as I know, he’s responsible for only one murder (at least directly).
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