KenH
Well-Known Member
"Why chase such a small prize?
One obvious answer is national ballot access, normally a huge hurdle to clear for independent candidates. The LP nominee will be on the ballot in at least 46 states(48 - KH). That otherwise would have cost millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man hours to accomplish.
A less cynical answer has to do with Barr’s ideology. Barr always had a libertarian streak.(emphasis mine - KH) He once tried to run for U.S. Senate (from Georgia!) as a moderately pro-choice Republican. This tendency was exacerbated by the heavy-handed way President Bush has prosecuted the War on Terror. After he was redistricted out of a seat in 2003, Barr has worked closely with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Marijuana Policy Project and editorialized against the Patriot Act and war in Iraq.
Analysts understand that Barr could hurt Sen. John McCain in November. But they mostly miss the extent of the damage the former congressman could inflict. In the Republican primaries, John McCain showed himself to be vulnerable in the South, where the socially conservative former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee trounced him. Since Republicans usually clean up in the South, that was assumed to be a non-issue.
Barr is now perfectly positioned to plunge an electoral dagger into that soft underbelly, starting in Georgia. If Sen. Barack Obama can max out black votes and Barr can peel off some white conservatives and antiwar voters, McCain will lose several Southern states. McCain is vulnerable in key Western states as well, including Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and possibly Montana, as Barr peels off some leave-us-alone votes that Republicans can usually count on.
And then there are all those Ron Paul revolutionaries. Rep. Paul received more than a million votes in the Republican primaries this year and raised over $35 million from enthusiastic small donors. In fact, that significantly understates his support. Paul’s vote totals were held down because many of his supporters failed to register as Republicans in time for the party’s closed primaries, and his poor showings in the early contests slowed donations to mere drips.
Paul’s supporters are poised to become Barr supporters, and there’s nothing to keep them from voting for him come November. They’ll have plenty of company." - Jeremy Lott
- http://americasfuture.org/doublethink/2008/06/spoiled/
One obvious answer is national ballot access, normally a huge hurdle to clear for independent candidates. The LP nominee will be on the ballot in at least 46 states(48 - KH). That otherwise would have cost millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man hours to accomplish.
A less cynical answer has to do with Barr’s ideology. Barr always had a libertarian streak.(emphasis mine - KH) He once tried to run for U.S. Senate (from Georgia!) as a moderately pro-choice Republican. This tendency was exacerbated by the heavy-handed way President Bush has prosecuted the War on Terror. After he was redistricted out of a seat in 2003, Barr has worked closely with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Marijuana Policy Project and editorialized against the Patriot Act and war in Iraq.
Analysts understand that Barr could hurt Sen. John McCain in November. But they mostly miss the extent of the damage the former congressman could inflict. In the Republican primaries, John McCain showed himself to be vulnerable in the South, where the socially conservative former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee trounced him. Since Republicans usually clean up in the South, that was assumed to be a non-issue.
Barr is now perfectly positioned to plunge an electoral dagger into that soft underbelly, starting in Georgia. If Sen. Barack Obama can max out black votes and Barr can peel off some white conservatives and antiwar voters, McCain will lose several Southern states. McCain is vulnerable in key Western states as well, including Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and possibly Montana, as Barr peels off some leave-us-alone votes that Republicans can usually count on.
And then there are all those Ron Paul revolutionaries. Rep. Paul received more than a million votes in the Republican primaries this year and raised over $35 million from enthusiastic small donors. In fact, that significantly understates his support. Paul’s vote totals were held down because many of his supporters failed to register as Republicans in time for the party’s closed primaries, and his poor showings in the early contests slowed donations to mere drips.
Paul’s supporters are poised to become Barr supporters, and there’s nothing to keep them from voting for him come November. They’ll have plenty of company." - Jeremy Lott
- http://americasfuture.org/doublethink/2008/06/spoiled/