The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Jim, it looks like Barr's total will be about equal to what Harry Browne got in 1996. I'm sure that's a disappointment to the Libertarian Party, but it's 100,000 more votes than Browne got in 2000, and about 90,000 more than Michael Badnarik got in 2004.

David Weigel was at Barr HQ in Atlanta last night, and I'm sure he'll soon file a full report, but I'll offer my own brief explanation for the disappointment of the Barr juggernaut:

• PAULISTAS -- In May, it was the hope of many LP activists that Ron Paul would endorse his friend and former congressional colleague, thus putting the Paulista energy (and money) behind the Libertarian candidate. That didn't happen. The Paulistas were more interested in staging a protest at the RNC in Minneapolis, and as for Paul himself . . . well, stuff happens.
• MEDIA BIAS -- If the McCainiacs can whine about the liberal media, Barr could (but won't) whine about conservative media. National Review, the Weekly Standard, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity -- Barr's campaign was briefly ridiculed then carefully ignored by the giants of the rightward media. GlennBeck and Neil Cavuto were among the few conservative broadcasters who gave Barr any serious attention. If you were reading NRO's Corner, Red State or Townhall at any point from July onward, you wouldn't even have known that such a person as Bob Barr existed, much less that he was running for president.

Of course, the sodomy-and-assisted-suicide wing of the LP -- the folks who viewed Barr's candidacy as a "neocon takeover" plot -- will blame Barr, and their reaction likely will be to abjure future flirtations with political relevance.