Former Republican [Bob Barr] to seek Libertarian presidential nomination

CNN ^ | 5-8-2008 | CNN

[jmc813]

Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr will announce Monday that he will run for president as a Libertarian, a source close to the Georgian told CNN.

Barr will officially declare his candidacy at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. The four-term congressman left the GOP in 2006, saying that Republicans had "lost their core principles."

Barr made a name for himself in Congress for his ardent conservative philosophy and his role in President Clinton's impeachment. He lost a primary election in 2002.

Last month, Barr formed a presidential exploratory committee as he weighed a run for the White House. The source said that Barr had been considering a presidential bid "for several months. He currently runs Liberty Strategies, a consulting firm in Atlanta and Washington.

Barr joins a handful of other candidates seeking the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination including former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination this year. Libertarians meet in Denver on May 22 for a four day convention where members will choose the party's presidential nominee.

[Ron Jeremy]

You have no clue who I vote for, so stop blubbering about facts that are unknown to you.

Sure I do, you have said repeatedly that you are voting for McCain. McCain is a liberal. You vote for liberals. I don't. You are either a liberal, or a sucker.

[theFIRMbss]

>Please explain how republicans became entitled to conservative vote?

Where did this whine start?
Who first said Republicans
were first, last, always

defined, bounded by
anyone's definition
of "conservative?"

Conservative is
an ethical adjective
applied to persons.

Republicans are
a political party,
a group of persons.

And a group that big
won't be one of anything.
Ethics don't apply

to groups, just persons.
Now, conservative people
can choose to vote for

anyone they like.
But they're foolish to expect
politics of groups

to reflect ethics
of individuals. But,
all that being said,

in the big picture
the Republican party
does embody more

conservative views
than the 'Rats. Conservatives
therefore have often

gone Republican.
But it's not entitlement!
It's just common sense.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Furthermore, sorry
I left off the Anna pic.
(Got stuff on my mind . . .)

[Triple]

So, you don’t object then, to people voting for the candidate that reflects their values, letting the chips (votes) land where they are earned.

Or do you?

[A CA Guy]

You can want Ronald Reagan to win from the grave (which probably has a better chance than your third party candidate...AS YOU KNOW).

I call what you do the throw-away-vote.

You want to vote for your pipe-dream (which you are free to do).
That throw-away-vote ends up helping elect the very worst candidate (Obama) who will put in the most liberal new Justices, massive taxation and cause millions of dead by an early withdrawl in Iraq.

Passive enabling of a bad Democrat Obama into power because of so called principles or disappointment with Republicans doesn't make the bad outcome any better.

Millions of possible dead from early withdrawal of troops, Justices, taxation and so forth are the issues this election that we have some little control over.
You don't want to poop the election and help get millions dead IMO.

I don't want millions dead in Iraq from early withdrawal.
I don't want three new Justice Ginsbergs on the bench.
I don't want massive new taxation all over the board.
I don't want attacks on those that are successful in business, make money, employ people and make things go in the USA.
SO, I will hold my nose and vote McCain because it is the only RESPONSIBLE choice to make considering it's OBAMA if it's not McCain.

Sure I'll go home, put a urinal target in my toilet with a picture of McCain.
I do NOT like him at all, but the alternatives to him that are electable (AND YOUR CHOICE IS NOT ELECTABLE) will cause the death of millions and work toward the destruction of the family and all of America.

That is why I would find your complaints totally invalid should an Obama get elected.
In my view, the choice to silence your vote where it could count actually enables the Communist Democrat.
You of course find my views wrong, but that is how I see it.

I also don't want to see millions murdered from early troop withdrawal.
I don't want massive new taxation and several new Liberal Justices on the bench.
That is why voters should NOT vote for UNLELCTABLE THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES, that personal choice in FACT gets you a President Obama. Not in any way excusable, intelligent or rational in my personal opinion.

I like most everyone here wish we had a better Republican than McCain as our choice, but that was not to be this time.

Until conservatives at the State level get grass roots organized and find talented ELECTABLE people to groom for offices, we will have disappointment after disappointment in our choices for elected office. The action is in getting new candidates elected that were molded from the State level by conservatives, not getting Obama elected then complaining about Obama afterward.

[theFIRMbss]

>So, you don’t object then, to people voting for the candidate that reflects their values, letting the chips (votes) land where they are earned. Or do you?

No. I was only
indulging in self-righteous
whining about all

the forum's endless
self-righteous whining about
Rinos and cinos.

[A CA Guy]

I also worry far less about what McCain might possibly do compared to what we know Obama WILL do.

At least with McCain we can influence him through calls, emails and protests if we don't like something.

With Obama, he doesn't give a sh!t and will do all the massive communist/socialist changes he feels like, “the people be damned” as far as he is concerned.
No amounts of protesting, emails or calls will concern Obama.

[Triple]

ok. Thanks for clearing that up.

[El Gran Salseron]

“I honestly cannot say that I think McCain is actually the lesser of the evils - I think he is just as evil as the others. I really, really do.”

Just as evil or maybe worse because he hides behind a repub cloak.

[CottonBall]

This is how conservatives snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

By having someone run who is more conservative than the liberal Republican candidate is somehow taking something away from conservatism? I think not.

[CottonBall]

People have got to stop voting for the status quo, it just gets worse every year.

I voted for the lesser of two evils in the last two elections, believing all the crap about how the next time around, we'll have a real conservative. HA! The joke was on me. We'd be hardpressed to get a worse 'conservative' than McCain. I'm not buying that line again. Ever.

[CottonBall]

We can choose slower growth by electing a Republican

We did. It didn't work.

Excellent point there, steve-b

[VirginiaConstitutionalist]

We can choose slower growth by electing a Republican,

News flash. Non-defense welfare spending grew faster under Bush and the Republican Congress than it did under Clinton or Jimmy Carter and their Democrat congresses.

Vote for Barr. If Obama wins, at least it'll wake up the GOP and leave behind a party that actually backs up its rhetoric. I'm baffled by conservatives who want to elect Republicans who are more pro-government than Democrats.

[CottonBall]

We can choose slower growth by electing a Republican

We did. It didn't work.

Excellent point there, steve-b. Somehow, I'm supposed to believe that an even more liberal Republican president is going to do more conservative things than the last moderate Republican president?

[CottonBall]

A real conservative for change was Ronald Reagan. When he saw a crisis in his party, he worked to change the party. He didn’t give up. HE kept fighting on. People like Pat Buchanan and Bob Barr are conservatives who walk out when their brand of orthodoxy isn’t followed 100%.

I think the party was different 30-40 years ago - open to change and open to conservatism. It's neither now.

[CottonBall]

The Libertarian party is pro-abortion, pro-drug, etc., etc.. Not at all conservative.

It's ironic that you bring up with Libertarian Party's platform, while ignoring that the current Republican nominee has nothing in common with the Republican Party platform.

[CottonBall]

When you split the Republican vote in half you have already lost the election

I believe that your premise that all Republicans would vote for McCain if there were no other 3rd party option is faulty. Many conservative Rs would not vote for McCain, no matter what. Myself included.

[CottonBall]

Libertarians are not pro life and they are for legalized drugs. End of story.

Republicans believe in smaller government, lower taxes, free speech, and in obeying the rule of law (illegal immigration).

I'd rather vote for a candidate that matches my views vs. a candidate that does not but belongs to a party that supposedly does. I'm giving Barr a chance by not closing my mind already.

[CottonBall]

At least with McCain we can influence him through calls, emails and protests if we don't like something.

Like you did when he was drafting McCain-Kenndy? And how he didn't vote for it because he was listening to his constituents in Arizona? Denial may be a pleasant place to be in, but eventually reality will hit - and it won't be pretty.

[Recovering_Democrat]

I think the party was different 30-40 years ago - open to change and open to conservatism. It's neither now.

On the contrary, the Republicans had been led by country club Republicans for years. The big difference was that conservatives were adamant about changing the party...now there are significant numbers who just want to quit and relegate themselves to a political cipher.

[Lou L]

I hear what you're saying; McCain is not my favorite choice, but I'd rather hold my nose and vote for him, than to suffer with Hillary or Obama in the White House (and a Democratic-controlled Congress).

McCain is the lesser of two evils, and I just don't know what we would gain by "making a statement" and voting for Barr. Many of us tried that in 1992, and we ended up with 8 years of Clinton. Would McCain be that bad?