Liberty Maven

Bob Barr is reportedly ready to announce his candidacy for the Libertarian Party Presidential nomination Saturday during his speech at the Heartland Libertarian Conference in Kansas City. This has been rumored for quite a long time, and now seems like a certainty.

Bob Barr was a guest on Sean Hannity’s radio program yesterday and was accused by Hannity of handing the White House to the Democratic nominee. Barr had nothing of that saying, “If McCain is not able to pull enough votes to win outright, then shame on him” and he is “tired of hearing all the whining”.

Barr will pull in a sizable portion of the almost 1 million Ron Paul supporters. He will pull votes from the Democrat because of his civil liberties advocacy. He will pull votes from John McCain because of his conservative roots. If he were to get the Libertarian nomination, he could conceivably get more votes than any Libertarian candidate in history.

The idea that his candidacy will lead to the Democrat winning the White House; I’m not buying it. There seems to be only one publication willing to agree with me. Everyone else sees it as a foregone conclusion that a Barr run equates to a Democratic win. I suppose we’ll find out if there is a chance of this on Saturday following Barr’s speech.

Bob Barr has some events in his past that call into question his character, but faced with the choice between he, Hillary, Obama, or McCain, he wins my vote every time.

Barr introduced Ron Paul at CPAC this year and his association with Paul will likely be used by some neo-conservative McCain lovers against him. I think (and hope) the effect of this will be trivial.

It is interesting to ponder whether Bob Barr would be doing this if it weren’t for Ron Paul’s enthusiastic support in his own campaign. No doubt, Ron Paul will be happy to help Barr in any way he can. Paul will not likely endorse Barr. Paul is a Republican and endorsing a Libertarian spits in the face of the GOP he’s trying to change from within. It would not surprise me to see mass emails going out to Ron Paul supporters supporting Barr for President. The Barr campaign can purchase the list and start jockeying for support immediately.

One of the more interesting developments that will come out of Barr’s candidacy is how much Ron Paul will help “raise the Barr.”