Is Bob Barr the next Ron Paul?

[Terri]

Bobby Eberle
The Loft at GOPUSA

In 1992, Ross Perot ran as an independent and, according to some pundits, helped turn the election to Bill Clinton. In 2000, Ralph Nader ran for president on a third-party ticket and garnered enough votes in Florida to keep Al Gore from winning the state and winning the White House. Nader has already announced that he will seek the presidency in 2008. Now, it appears that former Republican turned Libertarian Bob Barr may enter the race. If so, it is certainly a new wrinkle for this election cycle, but how much difference will it make?

Ross Perot received 19% of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential election. This marked the most votes by a non-Republican or non-Democratic candidate since Teddy Roosevelt (who was a former president at the time) ran under the "Bull Moose" party banner in 1912. Although Clinton may have ended up winning the election without Perot in the race, in several states that Bush carried in 1988, Perot was definitely a factor. In Florida in 2000, Al Gore lost the state by 537 votes. If Florida would have gone for Gore, he would have been president. Nader garnered nearly 97,000 votes in the state.

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[maus99]

If Bob BARR works for the ACLU the last thing he is ... is a LIBERTARIAN or a CONSERVATIVE. Who in the world would vote for him?

[pmck]

Ever since his district was changed, Bob Barr has gone out on the deep end. I think that he drank too much kool aid after the impeachment of Clinton and lost all of his thought process.

[Siridh]

As to your comment that if Ron Paul backs Bob Barr he should be kicked out of the Republican Party -- you should be ashamed of yourselves! In ignoring Ron Paul, the Republican Party completely ignored a good solid conservative. His problem seems to be that he adheres to the Constitution, that he's pro-life, against illegal immigration, pro-gun, anti-big government. Oh, he's against empire building, I guess that means a Republican that hangs with the Democrats and is for illegal immigration and against the 1st amendment is better. Give us a Republican we can back and we won't move Libertarian. And don't tell us to "shut up" and get behind the nominee that we did not want to begin with!

[1workingmom1]

The part of Bob Barr that scares me is his affiliation with the ACLU. BUT, I'm interested to hear what Ron Paul has to say about Barr.

Frankly, I'm upset that Ron Paul has not made the move from the GOP, who treated him badly, to an Independent party (Green, Libertarian etc) taking his already devout supporters with him.

Sometimes candidates can upset the apple cart, as was the case with Ross Perot once upon a time. Perot really didn't want to be President, he just wanted to change the outcome of the election as many thought it was destined to be. When he announced his running mate (a wisely selected "bad choice") many of the Perot supporters had to take a second look and decided against supporting Perot after all.

Whether the voters vote for Barr or not at all should have no impact on this election. It's clear to me that McCain will be soundly defeated by Obama (or any Democrat) and this country is going to be the looser no matter which of the "big three" candidates becomes our next President since they are all talking a good story but are taking their directions from the same master . . .

Let's see, McCain (speak no evil), Clinton (see no evil) and Obama (hear no evil) are talking differnet stories that will appeal to the majority of the population in one way or the other. When it's all over there will be little change in Iraq, the illegal immigrants will be pacified with some version of amnesty, jobs will continue to move outside the USA and the dollar will continue to devaluate - no matter which of these three monkeys gets the job!!!

Remember, I told you so!!!!

[linbar2000]

Sounds to me like the Libertarian Party is just as screwed up as the Democrat & Republican Parties are. If Mr. Barr is working for the ACLU, just how conservative do you think he really is? No thanks I'll pass on any support for this person.

[ONTIME]

After seeing Dr. Paul on the Beck show yesterday I do believe that Americans are working up the determiation to dissiolve one of it's two parties and reorganize. It is evident that a large number of us are totally dissatisfied with both parties and the antics of fraud they want to perpetuate in the name of the U.S. and it's citizens.

I find hope that many of our younger people are exhibiting a stronger knowledge of the politic than expected and seem to lean toward the conservative, with recognition that the government is not the end all to quality of life, this I believe is more in our geezer realm and they are more worried about their entitlement security than any, especially the security of this nation.

The libertarians have shown me little and Barr is not the man he used to be and if anything He may harbor hard feelings as to how he was treated. His reasons may have validity but his motives may impair any of his actions. I hope this is the case.

[Joninokc007]

I suspect that if Bob Barr does run, it will change the entire dynamic of the current race.

It has become clear that the issue stands of McCain, Ms. Clinton, and Obama are almost identically liberal.

They all favor open borders, liberal big government and higher taxes.

The only debate left is on how slowly we leave Iraq, how high we raise taxes, and how much of the U.S. will be annexed by our new master, Mexico.

In a situation where you are asked to vote for the lessor of three evils, and all three candidates seem to be vaguely irratic and angry beyond words, then chaos is bound to occur in the elections.

If Bob Barr does not run, then I suspect some libertarian or conservative independant will run, and will grab the conservative base.

I am convinced of this event, because McCain will pick Lieberman or some ragingly liberal V.P. and continue to show signs of advanced age to the point that NO Conservative who has not drank the kool-aid will consider him a viable candidate.

McCain himself has become convinced that conservative beliefs have evaporated like frost, and there is nothing left but centrist, liberals and moderates in the country, and he just needs to go left to win.

McCain seems to not understand that the conservative movement is not like democrats and will not vote blindly for a Republican just for the R in the name.

[elmerck1]

Bob couldn't even beat Linder for his seat in Ga, so I don't see him as a threat in any party.

[whytedog]

I have not heard of Bob Barr. ACLU in my opinion if anti American. Therefore, I cannot see Ron Paul really supporting him. My vote still goes with Ron Paul. We need more people choosing him to be President of the United States. Ron Pauls beliefs are for us. I only wish he was more direct in running for President. His comments about that come across as a little whishy washing. Speak up and say "I want to be your President" We will elect you Ron Paul.