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Georgia Barr the Door

June 28th, 2008
By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor

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BobBarr2008.jpgHe’s raised just $300,000 dollars. He has a staff of only six people working out of a non-political public relations firm office. He’s not even on the ballot in 20 of the 50 states. So why does Bob Barr have so many people looking nervous and edgy? Sometimes the answer lies in the margins. As this New York Times article points out, people are already casting a wary eye at Mr. Barr’s home state of Georgia, among others.

The Republican Party and the McCain campaign have swatted away the Barr candidacy, but some Republicans are taking it seriously. If the early polls hold up, and Senator Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee, pours heavy resources into Georgia, that state could be up for grabs, said Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia.

“If Barr got 8 percent, and you’ve got the higher African-American turnout from Barack Obama, then you’d have a significantly close race in the state,” Mr. Isakson said.

Analysts are also looking at the potential for Barr to do well in Alaska, New Hampshire, Colorado and other western mountain states which are increasingly looking as if they will be in play. Like Georgia, Barr doesn’t need to actually win any of these states to have a huge impact on the race. He simply needs to drag the GOP vote down enough - when combined with increases in African American and youth vote turnout - to push any potentially close races over the edge to the Democrats.

What does Bob Barr think about his potential position as a spoiler for John McCain? He seems to be enjoying it.

None of it bothers Bob Barr, the former Republican congressman from Georgia turned Libertarian Party candidate for president, who gleefully recounted what he says a group of Republicans told him at a recent meeting in Washington: Don’t run.

“ ‘Well, gee, you might take votes from Senator McCain,’ ” Mr. Barr said this week, mimicking one of the complainers, as he sat sipping Coca-Cola in his plush corner office, 12 stories above Atlanta. “They all said, ‘Look, we understand why you’re doing this. We agree with why you’re doing it. But please don’t do it.’ ”

As the article also notes, money will be a large issue if Mr. Barr hopes to mount a large scale attack. Barr’s team is hoping to latch on to the significant fundraising potential and rebellious discontent of Ron Paul’s supporters. The “Ron Paul Army” demonstrated the ability to raise ten million dollars in a single day - some thirty times the total amount Barr has raised thus far. Paul’s enthusiastic supporters also built a widespread, powerful presence on the internet which Barr has thus far not managed.

For more information, visit the Bob Barr Campaign Home Page.

e-mail the author: jazzshaw@gmail.com



This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 3:15 am and is filed under Bob Barr, Newsweek Blogitics, 2008 Elections, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 4 Comments

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    Since McCain is probably the worst candidate for presdient since Dukakis and the Republican Party is near the ends of its death spiral, there is no reason to believe that Barr will be a spoiler. If McCAin was a much smarter candidate and if the Repubican Party was not fatally flawed, there might be a reason to believe that Barr could be a spoiler. But in this eleciton cycle, it is Senator Obama's to lose and I believe that the U.S. is at the point that Senator Obama would have to caught in bed with a live boy or dead girl in order to lose this election;
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    I'd direct attention instead at Barr, and retrospectively at Paul: they really don't amount to anything, no more than Nader on the Left. (It's totally separated from McCain's weakness contrasted with Obama's strength.)
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    "Senator Obama would have to caught in bed with a live boy or dead girl in order to lose this election"

    No, for that would of course have been a Rove-inspired, Cheney-and-GOP-engineered conspiracy, a setup, entrapment!
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    It's politics. It's a feel good, PR business. Pretty words by pretty people hiding ugly truths. Truth is secondary to perception. If politicians were real people, you wouldn't vote for them. People want Santa Claus to save them even though in the political arena Santa Claus is really first and foremost a secretive, self-serving Grinch who can't be trusted. I am a Bob Barr/Ron Paul supporter who believes that when the government becomes a blockade to progess and freedom, the people must rise up and take back their government peacefully through any means necessary. Government is not God. They don't own you and they don't own your children. I hope Obama can save us. McCain surely can't. I feel Bob Barr is the sensible choice at this point in US history. We can't be all things to all people especially when OUR curtained government takes from us and delivers back precisely only that which it wants to give us most of the time. It's a business. We will not survive rampant corporatism and bloated government. Our American dollar is crashing, inflation is soaring and America and the World are dying having lost our trust. We've lost our way and have been brainwashed by a barrage of propaganda. We need to go back to our roots. Soon it will be too late. Very soon. Lady Liberty represents religious freedom and economic freedom. Why can't we relight the flame and take our country back? The time for action is now.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im0Wqj3BSvU
 
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