Wapo Hit Piece on Bob Barr

If you’re Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, you have to start wondering which is worse: having the press virtually ignore your campaign or having them pay attention to it. While some may follow the Hollywood maxim of, “any press is good press as long as they spell your name right,” the Barr team may not take any comfort from that after reading the results of Libby Copeland’s two days of interviews with the candidate. You get a sense of the article’s flavor just by looking at the title, “Bob Barr, the Master of a Curious Universe.”

The author continues a long tradition of MSM outlets trying to paint any third party candidate as being non-serious, perhaps comical, or “whacky.” She makes repeated references to Barr’s “rules of the universe” which he will occasionally quote in lighter moments. I’ve now had the chance to speak to the Congressman and his staff on several occasions and I can tell you that Barr is a very serious person, but he does have a lighter side. His universal rules are reminiscent of the collected wisdom of Lazarus Long by Robert Heinlen. (Lazarus dryly noted that “small change can often be found under seat cushions.” Bar observes that, “The most difficult thing about politics is dealing with people with really bad breath.”)

When given the opportunity to examine whether or not the candidate will be able to enter the debates with Obama and McCain, she chooses instead to dwell on a private moment between Barr and his wife. Jeri was asking about an opportunity to go see “Wicked” which was on the same day as one of the debates, which seems to fascinate Copeland to no end. Scant attention is paid to Barr’s more serious proposals regarding foreign policy, reduction of the size of government and tax reform, but she managed to return no less than three times to observations on the fact that Bob Barr has… dimples.

Russ Verney (Barr’s campaign manager) lived through similar trials in press treatment when he handled both of Ross Perot’s presidential bids. The press similarly picked apart Perot’s personality and habits, choosing to focus on his preference for pie charts and PowerPoint presentations – standard tools of business – rather than his vision of how to lead the nation. With any luck, Russ will know how to manage expectations with the media this time around.

This Thursday afternoon at 5 pm eastern time, on a special edition of Mid Stream Radio, we’ll be doing a live broadcast of a conference call with Barr. I contacted Russ this weekend and obtained permission to not only broadcast it, but record it for your later use via download. If you have any questions for the candidate yourself, stop by and submit them in our web chat and I’ll see if I can’t get them put in. Or, just listen along live and get a feel for how these things run.