Monday, May 26, 2008 at 8:40 am by Darryl
Bob Barr (L)
The Libertarians have made their choice:
Georgia’s Bob Barr won a long and tense battle Sunday for the 2008 Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination and now faces the daunting task of doing what no third-party candidate has done: Win in November.
[...]Having someone with Barr’s relatively high profile “means great things for the Libertarian Party,” national party spokesman Andrew Davis said. “It means the best year the Libertarian Party has ever had in its 35-year history.”
It is always difficult to judge the effect of third party candidates so early in the general election process. I’m guessing that Barr will not make a huge difference in this election—perhaps the loss of one to three million votes for Sen. John McCain by disaffected Republicans and McCain haters.
Barr does not have the charisma that Ross Perot had, the strong centrist following that John Anderson had coming out of the 1980 Republican convention, and he doesn’t come off as an anti-establishment candidate like Ralph Nader. Even thought there is a lot of anger and malcontent in the Republican ranks now, I see that translating into no-shows in November, not protest votes. I’m thinking many Libertarians will sit this one out, as well.
