Bob Barr has just won the Libertarian nod

[Oak2004]

on something like the seventh ballot.

Go Bob Barr! Win Republican votes!

:D

Addendum: anyone interested in seeing how the lunatic fringe runs its convention can see it live on CSPAN. They're impressively amateurish... reminds me of my days in student government.

[murielm99]

1. Ohh! Let's get bumper stickers. n/t

[ccharles000]

2. ...

:beer:

[Elspeth]

3. He may win a lot of Democratic votes

He is the only one talking about habeas corpus.

[Benhurst]

4. And the shredding of the Constution and Bill of Rights.

Other than treasonously joining in to vote for the so-called "Patriot" Act and its renewal, where have "our" people been?

The destruction of our form of government ought to be right up there with the economy and Iraq and Iran as a campaign issue.

[Elspeth]

18. It's the elephant in the living room that no one is talking about

That scares the hell out of me.

[Oak2004]

5. That's untrue

Every Democratic candidate signed the American Freedom Campaign pledge to restore the Constitution, including habeas corpus (essentially the same pledge Bob Barr supports and promotes). And I have heard Sen. Obama, as well as others no longer in the race, speak about it.

Quantity of speech does not equal quality of support. It's much easier for Libertarians to talk a whole lot about habeas -- after all, they don't have much else to their platform that makes sense to anyone but themselves, and they certainly can't speak of their support for economic justice. Democrats, in contrast, have more than one or two issues to run on.

[Elspeth]

19. But Bob Barr has been working actively with the ACLU for a number of years now

He's put his money where his mouth is. It's not just about signing a frigging pledge.

[Benhurst]

22. Exactly. Most Americans don't have a clue their historic Constitutional

rights have been taken from them.

All "our" people should have been screaming blood murder from day one, to say nothing about all those who actually went along.

[Elspeth]

27. Exactly.

But this whole election is all about image and marketing and perceived insults. No one is talking about habeas corpus or the erosion of all of our rights.

[Oak2004]

23. He's got the time on his hands to do that -- he's not in office n/t

[Elspeth]

28. It's the office holders' responsibility to PROTECT and PRESERVE these rights.

What has either Obama or Clinton done to do so?

[mdmc]

26. I wonder what he will do about the drug war

the party platform opposes it, but he supports the drug war.

We won't lose too many dems to him. Much less then we will lose to Mccain, nader, and whoever the greens run.

[pinto]

10. Eh, if anything, I figure he'll pull (R) voters. What effect he'll have in the GE remains to be seen

But his run won't hurt us....

[JDPriestly]

11. Obama has promised to restore habeas corpus and to enforce the Constitution.

I am very interested in that issue and heard him say that myself. He pointed out that he has taught Constitutional Law and that this is an important issue to him. So, Barr is not the only candidate talking about this issue. I think Obama will be even stronger on this issue that anyone now could imagine.

He is a lawyer -- and not just any lawyer, but one interested in the Constitution. Many, many lawyers are just infuriated by the Bush administration's self-serving "interpretation" or violations of the Constitution (take your pick depending on your viewpoint -- I prefer the term violations).

I also heard John Edwards live forcefully promise here in Los Angeles at the SEIU that he would restore habeas corpus and comply with the Constitution in other respects. The crowd absolutely went wild. I have not heard Hillary speak on this, but certain Edwards and Obama are very vocal and strong on this issue. There is no reason for Democrats to switch to Barr on this ground.

Where does Barr stand on the War on Drugs and on wiretapping?

[Elspeth]

20. Obama has promised many things, including things that are already being done by career

government employees. Mostly, what Obama has accomplished is being turned into a brand and letting himself be sold, like laundry soap. As conservative as Bob Barr is--and as anti-Clinton as he was--the guy has a track record working on preserving Constitutional rights with the ACLU.

[ShadowLiberal]

30. But Barr was once a Republican Congressman, and is more conservative then most Libertarians

[KharmaTrain]

6. What's A Paulbot To Do???

While many here are too consumsed with a non-primary primary, the Paulbots haven't gone away. They want their man to have a prime time speaking slot at the GOOP dog & pony show. Wouldn't that be juicy...Ron Paul on prime time all but tearing the party's platform to shreads? :rofl: It's either that or there could be some "uncomfortable" moments if he's pushed aside...noisy ones as well. The pundits think Denver will be chaos? Methinks we'll be in for quite a fun time in Minneapolis.

It'd be delicious if a pissed Paul endorses Barr...and sucks about 10% or so of the GOOP vote throughout the South and West

:bounce:

Gramps doesn't realize it, but he's just been "Nadarized".

:rofl:

[bluesmail]

14. What does GOOP stand for, it's the second time I've read it today

[KharmaTrain]

16. One I've Used For Decades...

Greedy, Obstinate, Obnoxious Partisans...

[bluesmail]

24. best I could do was Get Out Of Primaries.

oh well, thanks

[checks-n-balances]

29. Y'mean 'Perverts', don'cha? n/t

[KharmaTrain]

31. Or Perpetrators

I came up with that in the 80's...all we had back in those days were smelly old guys with bad hair. The perverts didn't come until later.

Cheers...

[checks-n-balances]

32. That's a good one! How about this:

Predators.

.

[dave123williams]

7. Fine. Maybe he'll pull a Nader and cost the GOP the election by 1%.

That would be wonderfully ironic.

[philly_bob]

8. Libertarians are interesting. Will Ron Paul & Bob Barr cooperate in Fall?

The mainstream Republican party, powerful as it is, is like an undead zombie propelled by ugly, mysterious forces. How many McCain signs do you see, in comparison to Ron Paul signs? How many people are proud to be NeoCons?

The libertarian point of view is idealistic. Libertarians like Ron Paul and Bob Barr happen to be right on four burning issues of the time -- (1) war in Iraq, (2) war on drugs, (3) balanced budget issues, (4) separation of church and state -- although they are dead wrong on most other issues, like health care, campaign finance, corporate governance, national parks, etc.

I suspect that ten or twenty years down the road, the Bush/McCain/NeoCon strain of the right will be remembered as an embarrassment, an aberration -- kind of the way Sen. Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts are viewed today -- but the Libertarians will still be in there pitching freshman-level free market oversimplifications and stirring appeals to absolute personal liberty (for those who can afford it).

I guess what I'm saying is I can respect Bob Barr and Ron Paul in a way I can't respect Bush or McCain. Libertarians believe in the Constitution. Libertarians don't compete on the basis of their willingness to torture prisoners. Better naive than evil.

When Democratic legislators start talking about how nationalizing the U.S. oil companies is going to somehow increase the supply of oil, I connect with the Libertarian areas of my brain.

It'll be interesting to see whether Ron Paul and Bob Barr cooperate in any way come the conventions and elections...

[nickinSTL]

9. I watched the last couple rounds of voting...

what were they using, Microsoft Excel to report their results? Bizarre.

[pinto]

12. Yeah. It was fairly efficient, truth be told. There were only what? 600 delegates there?

[nickinSTL]

13. well, I guess it was...seemed like it took a while to report...

but it is a fair number of votes to report.

I just thought the use of Excel was weird.

[progressoid]

15. I watched about 15 minutes of it.....YAAAAWWWWN.....

At about 10:00 this morning, they panned the room and it looked like there were 30 or 40 people listening. :eyes:

[opihimoimoi]

17. Barr??? he will get about 68 votes....fuck him...he is nuts and an egotist...

[samsingh]

21. i never thought i would say this but go bob go

such the fing right wing repug votes away from the pretend hero mccain

[mdmc]

25. I saw a bit of it.

I hope Barr goes far!

[spoony]

33. When I think of Bob Barr

all I can picture is him choking down a piece of cheese Borat just told him was made from his wife's milk, lol.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

34. Go, Bob, Go!

:-)