by Eric DonderoI have been sitting on this story for 5 days at the request of a political colleague. Now, Fox News has broken the story, using a largely obscure website as its source.
Fox News is reporting as a top Headline story the following:
Report: Ex-GOP Rep Weighs BidRepublican-turned-Libertarian Bob Barr is looking to pull conservatives from McCain; Ron Paul to reportedly endorse...
Fox then links to a newly launched South Carolina celebrity gossip website that bills itself as the "sexiest blog ever" for the full details. But, the details are sketchy. According to FTS News:
Feeding off of conservative discontent with Republican presidential nominee John McCain, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr will announce a third party bid for the White House next week, sources tell FITSNews.
Barr, who will run as a Libertarian, is also slated to receive the the endorsement of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the only Republican presidential candidate who has yet to cease campaign operations and jump on the McCain bandwagon.
Since the story has broken on a major news website, I no longer feel obligated. I can advance the story with these few details. A top Libertarian Party consultant from the South, known to this very Blog, spent three days last week in Washington DC huddled with Party leaders, and possibly Barr himself. He told me afterwards that "it looked very good..." that Barr would jump in, but he didn't want to possibly hurt the effort, by any premature announcements.
CNN tossing out a possible Jesse Ventura run for President
Meanwhile, CNN, who links to this Blog on a weekly basis as a political news source, is playing up rumors of a possible run by libertarian-leaning independent Jesse Ventura. Ventura is set to be a guest on Larry King Live Tuesday night. Reports the CNN website:
Jesse Ventura...for president!!?? The former wrestler-governor is back and talking politics. Where has he been - and is he really making a run for presidency?
Other Libertarian contenders
Wayne Root, current frontrunner for the Libertarian Presidential nomination will have live appearances this week on the Mancow Morning Zoo, and Chicago's WGN TV.
Mike Gravel, recently announced Libertarian Presidential candidate appeared on CNN late last week, and this week has a write up about his candidacy in Newsweek.
For years, the libertarian movement has been operating in relative obscurity. Within two weeks, some of the movement's top political leaders have received coverage in the creme de la creme of media outlets.
Most likely, the political world and those who cover them, are finally acknwoledging that libertarians are a critical swing block that could decide this year's election.
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6 comments:
I guess he has to be the one to get Obama elected, since Paul has the Newsletter/Neo-Nazi stuff attached to him which would really come out if he ran.
I attended the LP of Florida convention this past weekend where Bob Barr was the featured dinner speaker. Total attendence 32 people, 4 tables of ten and not a full table to be found. Bob Barr doesn't even have the support of most of the LNC region that he respresents, can't see how he would be able to get the nomination.
Ouch! Lisa, is that you? Good to see you here.
I remember Libertarian Party of Florida in the 1980s used to have conventions with over 150 people. 32! That's pisspoor.
Jonathan, you may be on to something there. Hadn't thought about that. Perhaps Paul didn't ultimately want to run cause of the skeletons.
Yes, Eric its me. Not only was it just 32 people, 3 of the folks in attendence were current LP Presidential candidates, Daniel Williams, George Phillies and Mary Ruwart.
Jonathan: Paul has throughout all the dacades in politics not uttered one single racist word, while McCain has referred to gooks and recently in a debate he has also insulted ALL Muslims with his "burka" remark during the Florida debate. Apparently
insulting Asians is acceptable even for a presidential candidate. In his recent foreign policy speech he also seems to go for a renewed cold war with Russia, calling for an exclusion of Russia from G8 etc. meetings, and including Brazil and India. Well, with such irresponsible comments, do you think Asia and Russia would be interested to do any business with him. Do you think people in the Middle East and Asia would be interested in buying US bonds much longer with a sliding USD?
Eric: should I remind you that you said Paul would run third party for months now? You have been 100% wrong on that. Your stupid attempts to try to smear the most libertarian congressman is really becoming utterly boring. One reason why he would not run as third party is because the system is biased against a third party, as Ventura also mentioned. You also fail to mention Larry King's asking Ventura whether he would be interested to be VC candidate with Paul. There is also an exclusion clause in 4 of the 50 states, barring a candidate who did not become first in a primary for one party from running as a presidential candidate for another party. Texas is one of these states. Also: he will not be seen as a spoiler if he does not run third party. McCain is going to face quite some problem with McCain-Feingold, how ironic.
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