June 2, 2008
Spoiler? Tie-breaker? Insignificant?
I got to know Rep Bob Barr as one of the House Managers during President Clinton's impeachment and followed his career through his Borat cameo.
The NYTimes has an interesting piece on the Libertarian convention and the electoral significance on both big L and little-l libs.
Michael Kinsley, writing in Time magazine last fall, predicted that voters with libertarian leanings are going to be “an increasingly powerful force in politics.” The auguries come even from Hollywood, where a film adaptation of the libertarian writer Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged” is planned for release next year starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, both of whom are said to be Rand fans.
Our hopes lie on Brangelina, do they? I appreciate voting one's conscience, but the article, and everyone in it make clear spoiler is the highest to which Barr's candidacy can aspire.
Mr. [David] Boaz of the Cato Institute said he already detected some movement to Mr. Barr. “I’ve had friends e-mail me over the last few days and say, ‘I want Barr to keep McCain out of the White House,’ ” he said. “So there definitely are some libertarians who object to McCain and want to see Barr siphon votes away from him.”
This proud, pragmatic, little-l will stay in the McCain camp. thank you.
Hat-tip: Instapundit
2008 Posted by jk at June 2, 2008 3:04 PM
"Keep McCain out of the White House"? I wonder if these people realize that there's a Democrat running for the same office.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at June 3, 2008 10:02 AMI participated in the Colorado GOP convention this Saturday past. The only drama was the colorful effort of a couple hundred Ron Paul fans to get themselves elected as delegates to the national convention. No word yet on how many of the 22 delegates and 22 alternates are "Paulatics" but it's fair to say Bob Barr's candidacy is not the only one trying to "keep McCain out of the White House" which is a euphemism for "help Obama become president."
Don't blame the Rand fans, though. I sat next to a man who studied political science in college in 1948, read Atlas Shrugged when it was released, and is also a big fan of early Heinlein work. Both grudging McCain backers, we agreed that Paul would be worth a close look if "he wasn't such an anti-war nut."
The "Libertarian hippies" as Rand called them, and as I witnessed them on Saturday with mine own eyes, wholeheartedly believe the world will leave us alone if we leave it alone. Would but it were true.
Posted by: johngalt at June 3, 2008 11:33 AM | What do you think? [2]