May 25, 2008

Bob Barr nominated as Libertarian Party presidential candidate

The results 0.2% of the country have been waiting for are finally in: Bob Barr has been nominated as the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate. It's unfortunate that the loons at the LP couldn't have nominated someone entertaining.

Now that it's apparently official, this means that Bob Barr can finally get a sane immigration position that would be different from John McCain's. Probably only around half of libertarians support loose borders, and there are so few of them that he could afford to turn his back on them knowing he'd get many more votes out of the deal. If he did that he could get a significant portion of the disaffected GOP vote and perhaps some independents as well. As it is, there's very little salient to differentiate himself from McCain or even Clinton/Obama. It's possible to make very good points regarding immigration and it would be possible for him to completely discredit his opponents on this issue. But, to do that he has to be unlike Tom Tancredo or Ron Paul: he has to directly attack his opponents on immigration and forcefully point out how they're wrong. That might even include sending campaign workers to his opponents' appearances to ask them difficult questions, but at the very least it would include press releases and the like pointing out their lies and misleading and incomplete statements.

However, based on observing his statements and how his campaign operates and the fact that he appears to be little more than an establishment hack, I don't think he has the ability to understand any of that.

UPDATE: Not so fast, as some state delegations might be considering nominating someone besides Barr (reason.com/blog/show/126680.html). And, for this hour's laugh about libertarians, Massachusetts party chair George Phillies says, in all seriousness and referring to Barr's support for ~~the Defense of Marriage Act~~ keeping Wiccans out of the military:

"My delegation is majority pagan."

Posted to Politics at May 25, 2008 02:46 PM