GrodsCorp

Those pesky Libertarians

Tuesday 13 May 2008, 10:59 am

Bron

Categories: Politics

Tags: AmericanPolitics, Barr, Hillary, LibertarianParty, McCain, Obama

American politics is just so interesting, innit?

Former US congressman Bob Barr has announced plans to run for president on the Libertarian Party’s ticket, in a move some analysts say could hurt Republican presumptive nominee John McCain.

This is bad news for McCain. As pointed out in the article, Barr will steal those conservative votes that McCain desperately needs and is relying on, votes from conservatives who aren’t too happy with the Republican nominee for various reasons.

Barr, who has hired Ross Perot’s former campaign manager, acknowledged that some Republicans have tried to discourage him from running. But he said he’s getting in the race to win, not to play spoiler or to make a point.

It would take a miracle for Barr and the Libertarian Party to win. Highly unlikely, and I’m sure he knows it. So, he’s not in it to win, he’s in it to spoil or make a point. Has to be. Don’t lie, Barr.

However,

“I’ve heard from Americans from all walks of life … they want a choice,” he said at a news conference in Washington. “They believe that America has more and better to offer than what the current political situation is serving up to us.”

Admirable in trying to give Americans a choice. Democracy and all that, of which the US in the past 8 years has been trying to spread to other parts of the world, not always with much success.

So, does this look good for Obama (or Hillary)?

Well, not really. Bob Barr could just as likely steal those votes from Obama (or Hillary), not just from McCain. There are also still a lot of American voters pining for the other libertarian, Republican Ron Paul, who is still campaigning (I had to check, I’m shocked he’s still going; you certainly rarely hear anything about him campaigning in the primaries), so it would be interesting to see just how disastrous Bob Barr may be for both the Republicans and the Democrats.

Still, if it did come down to a McCain vs Obama battle, as seems most likely, Obama should be wary by the latest poll showing that McCain is still a strong candidate despite the lack of support for Bush (and, effectively, the Republican Party).

In hypothetical general election head-to-heads, Obama leads McCain by slim 51 to 44 percent margin, with the public split 49 percent for Clinton to McCain’s 46 percent.

Can I just say, COME ON OBAMA!

Oh, and bring on the election already.

21 Comments

The Editor (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 11:08 am) #

And bring on preferential voting. First past the post is anti-democracy.
Bron (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 11:09 am) #

Exactly. I meant to add that, but forgot. Me bad.
philip travers (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 11:33 am) #

You haven’t got much to think about,if all this endless American election stuff gets regurgitated here.And maybe many fine and decent citizens of that country,knowing indeed,how ,their own brain-washed state is hard to ignore,must surely shake sometimes of seeing this influence.Try looking up Alex Jones InfoWars ,and DavidIcke.com to get to see how reasonably sane in the American sense,find their own political process and heroes still devoid of what they may praise and speak.
Bron (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 11:38 am) #

OK.
Ant Rogenous (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 11:56 am) #

Can I just say, COME ON OBAMA!

This is why the most rabid of wingnuts are disillusioned with this presidential race: with Bush out of the picture, there’s no one left they’d like to come on.
Chuck A. Spear (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 12:09 pm) #

Didn’t Nader indirectly help Bush win the election in 2000?
Bron (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 12:14 pm) #

Yep. Which is why the Democrats are hoping that he won’t do the same thing again this year.
Wah (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 12:34 pm) #

Nader was able to split the democrat vote because Al Gore and John Kerry were less than inspirational choices.
I think he will have less of an impact this time round as Obama and Hillary are much more attractive candidates for Democrat voters - unless of course they’d rather vote for a white male.
Bron (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 12:45 pm) #

Yep, and then to cap it all off, there was Florida. Everyone remembers Florida, right?!
Terry Wright (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 12:52 pm) #

Great post Bron.

What’s with the talk of Clinton running as VP to Obama? She’s a smelly neocon like the usual suspects on Capitol Hill and Obama needs to get away from those bucketheads.

What about Edwards as VP? Certainly he’s more inline with Obama than Clinton? Or Dennis Kucinich?

BTW, for those who say Obama lacks experience (as opposed to porking the ex president being Whitehouse experience), here’s a great article
Terry Wright (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 12:56 pm) #

Bron: Everyone remembers Florida, right?!

Yup, when you appoint the supreme court judges, your brother is the governor and your cousin/brother-in-law is the Fox News director who declares you have won before the recount controversy has been decided, it’s easy to win in Florida … twice.
Bron (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 1:03 pm) #

Thanks for that link to the article, Terry. I’ve been looking for it. I read it ages ago and need it for my next bit of blogging, but couldn’t remember where I’d read it.

Florida was a bloody mess. I have a friend who lives there — apparently for a while afterwards she was telling people that she’s not from Florida, but from neighbouring Georgia or Alabama (she lives in the Floridian panhandle, close to the borders of those two other states).

Nearly 8 years on, she’s still angry about it. Quite rightly, I might add.
Bridgit Gread (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 1:54 pm) #

And bring on preferential voting. First past the post is anti-democracy.

Yep, so is having 50 states determine electoral procedure for federal elections, gerrymandering, vote rigging, voter challenges, fraudulent voter registrations, exclusion and disincentives for minorities, party hacks prowing polling rooms, elections on a working day, dodgy electronic voting, dubious punch-card ballots, etc. etc. I’d say first-past-the-post just fits in sweetly with all that.
Private Tom (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 3:00 pm) #

“Yup, when you appoint the supreme court judges…”

How did Bush appoint judges if he wasn’t yet the president?
Terry Wright (Tuesday 13 May 2008, 3:49 pm) #

How did Bush appoint judges if he wasn’t yet the president?

Second time around, Bush vs Kerry.
John Staymos (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 4:02 am) #

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004

Hate to bust into the cognitive dissonance here Terry, but Bush did not use, nor need any judicial help in 2004.

He beat Kerry by 3,964,522 votes to 3,583,544. Even with Nader it represents a margin of 5%.

In terms of the popular vote he clearly won the majority of votes with 62,040,610 votes to 59,028,444.

He achieved a victory with a lead equal to the entire population of either Sydney or Melbourne.

Please describe how judges were involved in the 2004 election?
John Staymos (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 4:07 am) #

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004

Bush scored a 5% gain in Florida in 2004 and won the majority vote by the margin of the population of Sydney.

62,040,610 votes to 59,028,444.

How exactly were judges involved in the 2004 election?
John Staymos (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 4:20 am) #

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004

How exactly did Bush use the judiciary in 2004?

He won Florida by a margin of 5% and won the popular vote by a margin equivalent to the population of Sydney.

62,040,610 votes to Kerry’s 59,028,444.
Bron (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 11:44 am) #

Is there an echo in here?
dulcinea (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 12:15 pm) #

The Supreme Court influenced the outcome of the 2000 election by preventing a recount of the Florida votes, the end result being the effective disenfranchisement of a large number of voters. If you know anything about the voting system and political situation in FL in 2000, you’d have reason to at least be suspicious, if not outraged.
dulcinea (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 12:28 pm) #

Nice post, Bron. It looks like Obama will win the nomination for sure now. Clinton just won WV, but it’s hardly a big win.