The American Spectator

DENVER — From this morning’s media breakfast, Bob Barr responds to a question from Michael Ivov, who’s covering the Libertarian Party convention for The New Republic. Ivov asked about opposition from “single issue” delegates:

Speaking of “single issue” delegates, I was just talking to some delegates supporting Steve Kubby, the California medical marijuana crusader, who were busy collecting presidential tokens for their candidate. Then I ran into Barr campaign operative Stephen Gordon, who is distributing copies of Val Richardson’s Washington Times story about Barr’s support from the Marijuana Policy Project.

Some in the Barr camp had referred to Val’s article as a “hit piece” — viewing it as an attempt to hurt the candidate’s mainstream viability — but in terms of securing the LP nomination, it’s pure gold here in Denver. Many of the radical-leaning delegates who are doubtful about Barr will be favorably impressed by his “free weeder” credentials, so the “hit piece” is just what Barr needs today to woo those who support Kubby, whose campaign buttons bear a marijuana leaf logo.

UPDATE: As of 9:15 a.m. MT, there were 562 delegates registered — significantly less than the 700-1,000 predicted before the convention. Registration continues until noon (2 p.m. ET), and I’ll be sure to post the final registration number then. The number is important because a large number might represent a strong turnout by either side of the purist/pragmatist divide, and also will affect the total number of tokens needed to get a candidate into tonight’s debate, which will be televised by C-SPAN.