A New Candidate

Bob Barr, a former Republican member of the House of Representatives, has announced his intention to run for president as the nominee of the Libertarian party. Barr represented a district in Georgia from 1995 to 2003, when he lost his seat to another Republican due to redistricting. Barr has been highly critical of President Bush’s administration, saying that he and the Republican Party have not done enough to decrease the size of the federal government. He is also a strong opponent of the Iraq War and is angered by a perceived lack of respect for civil liberties that has gone along with the wider war on terror. He left the GOP two years ago due to these philosophical and practical differences.

The 2004 Libertarian presidential nominee, Michael Badnarik, received less than one percent of the nationwide popular vote. But since then, Republican voters have become more and more disenchanted with their party’s direction, resulting in the party’s loss of Senate and House majorities in 2006 and President Bush’s historically low approval rating. Also, the Libertarian ideals of drastically reduced government, respect for civil liberties, and isolationism were put on full display in the media recently thanks to the surprising success of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. Barr shares many of the same views as does Paul, who didn’t come close to winning the Republican nomination but still won enough favorable media coverage and votes to play spoiler and make the other GOP candidates nervous. If Barr is able to attract Paul’s supporters away from John McCain, he could potentially play a pivotal role in the general election by luring away disaffected Republican voters. Of course, Barack Obama (the likely Dem nominee) might have to worry about Ralph Nader doing similar damage to his own numbers.