Libertarian Candidate Bob Barr Hopes To Eat Into Republican Vote
Because apparently an Obama victory is a libertarian victory.
ATLANTA — Bob Barr’s longshot presidential bid is in some ways as much about sending a signal to the Republicans, his former party, as it is about earning a respectable showing Tuesday for his Libertarian Party.
The former Republican congressman has focused on places where he can hurt the GOP the most, eyeing Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and Georgia — states where the Democrat-Republican race is tight and where he sees “an opportunity for a real impact.”
“If the Republican Party hasn’t gotten its message already, I don’t think it will,” Barr said. “The message is: Y’all have no vision, no message. And that’s why we’re running this campaign.”
Part of me can almost understand the feeling here. Maybe the Libertarians are thinking that a McCain win would only shore up the status quo in the Republican Party, and that if we get four years of Obama maybe the GOP will be forced back to its fiscally conservative roots.
That could be. But I think there are also a lot of members of the Libertarian Party out there are actually rooting for Obama. Which is just baffling. What part of Obama’s platform (what parts he’s actually been specific about) is about limiting the role of government in the lives of the individual? Something that libertarianism is supposed to be all about?
I think the GOP absolutely needs to bring the libertarians back into the fold, and doing that means getting back to advancing a fiscally conservative agenda, so I can understand not supporting McCain. But any libertarian supporting Obama isn’t really an libertarian.
