Bob Barr, a former GOP congressman, is running for president as a Libertarian

by Dave Keating | May 13, 2008 at 07:51 am | 249 views | 2 comments

Bob Barr: Government Intervention and the Nanny State

Some analysts are saying Barr could prove a spoiler for the candidacy of John McCain, stealing votes from the fiscal conservative wing of the party who have been made uncomfortable by McCain's overtures to the religious right. However Barr is not known as someone with a huge amount of charisma and he doesn't have name recognition, so the effect will likely not be so significant. Still, if there's anything one can say with certainty about this election cycle it's that there's nothing you can say with certainty.

Bob Barr, a onetime Republican congressman from Georgia, on Monday announced his plan to run for president as a Libertarian, promising to rein in federal spending and limit military involvement abroad.

"The government has run amok fiscally," Barr said at a news conference. During the first quarter of this year, he said, the private sector lost millions of jobs while the federal government was "hiring with enthusiasm."

Barr, who left the Republican Party two years ago, is expected to win the Libertarian Party's nomination during its convention this month in Denver.

On Monday, he said presumed Republican nominee John McCain was not a true conservative.

"There's not a great deal of substance there in terms of a commitment to cutting the size of government," said Barr, 59.

Besides, he said, no one who had crafted campaign finance changes -- as McCain did -- that capped individual donations could call himself a conservative -- "at least with a straight face."

Barr also lashed out at Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton for saying that the U.S. should "obliterate Iran" if that nation threatened Israel's existence.

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AlvarezGalloso

at 07:56 on May 13th, 2008

good stuff:

Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff. Bob Barr needs to be promoted to prove to the world that the USA is not just a domain of Republicans and Democrats.