Posted on 05/08/2008 11:13:54 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
Suit yourself.
I’m interested in whether you think you have an obligation to take whatever action is available to you to stand up against evil?
No, the GOP is not dying and either are the Rats.
As someone pointed out upthread, no third party yet has been willing to develop from the ground up. They just throw up a loon to run for president now and then, with the result that one of the two major party candidates can win with way less than 50% of the vote.
And let me rephrase my question. Is it morally right to facilitate a greater evil?
I used to have a very high opinion of Bob Barr.
“Im interested in whether you think you have an obligation to take whatever action is available to you to stand up against evil?”
Of course we do... which includes standing against the “lesser” evils as well. Whether the “lesser” evil wears that magical (R) after his name or not.
“Is it morally right to facilitate a greater evil?”
I’m glad you rephrased the question. You were bordering on insult in your previously posted question.
But to answer your rephrased question the answer is as follows:
Long-term? Yes, it is morally correct to facilitate evil, short term, if the long-term goal is to defeat the evil. The only way to start a movement in this day and age is to start it, period. It won’t ever get started as long as people do nothing to start the movement and continue to vote for people like McCain. Are there going to be hardships? Of course. The founding fathers knew that before they started, didn’t they? This time, McCain. Next time they’ll run someone even further to the left until they bury us. If they are going to bury us then I’ll go down fighting instead of caving in and voting for the likes of McCain. Who has the backbone? Those true conservatives who vote for McCain? I think not.
I disagree with you about the GOP not dying. It certainly is although I did say that it would be a slow, painful death. While it may not die completely, another stronger party will certainly emerge. At that point, both the dims and Repubs will team up, ( as if they haven’t done that already, ) to try to destroy the 3rd party.
Yes. That is why, unlike you, I don't vote for liberals who support the criminalization of political speech that they don't like.
I don’t think Charlie Brown tried to kick the football as many times.
No. He hasn't a chance in Hell of winning, and stands a good chance of helping to elect the most radically Leftwing Presidential candidate ever. Have you learned NOTHING from 1992?
The simple fact is that only a Dem or a Republican has won since 1852. The addition of even so popular a 3rd Party candidate as former President Teddy Roosevelt only split those of like mind and paved the way for Wilson (and you can thank him for the Federal Reserve, the income tax, getting dragged into WW1 by weakness and the League of Nations (predecessor to the UN). Do you WANT Obama to win?
Yes there is - elect Obama and you'll find out.
As mentioned, I despise McCain - and McCain-Feingold is one of my top reasons. But whereas McCain is at least a patriot who wrongly supported (and supports) a stupid and (IMHO, though not the Supreme Court's) unconstitutional law, Obama will enforce it with glee and with extreme prejudice against his opponents. Obama won't even salute the flag, will raise taxes, bring our troops home in utter humiliation, name radicals that make Ginsburg look conservative to the federal bench and do his damnedest to ban guns (among many other things).
McCain's the Devil we know, Obama the one we don't. McCain is old and not in the greatest of health, so his Veep (maybe, I pray, a real conservative to solidify the South?) may end up in charge. Obama will only die of a disease similar to Arkancide, something that is (thankfully) still a rare occurance at the top level in this country (unlike many others).
I despise McCain, but I FEAR Obama. I hate this choice, the worst in my lifetime by far - but the choice is still easy to make, given who McCain's opponent will be in November.
Libertarians are not pro life and they are for legalized drugs. End of story.
Thanks for the Time magazine cover. I had hoped that the idiots among us wouldn’t fall for that trick again but I see they are lining up to do so.
A wasted vote is one for someone you don’t believe in!
Gravel is no libertarian.
I'd vote for B Barr over McNutt any day. I too, plan on writing in Ron Paul for the same reasons. Blackbird.
So it's "my job" to vote for your favored nutbag, I mean liberal? LMAO! No how, no way. You blue bloods are about to get the government you both want, and deserve. Blackbird.
I recently joined the Libertarian Party(LP) and I would votre for Barr if he runs. I voted GOP my whole adult life and I finally had to ask why. I realized the major parties have become arrogant and unresponsive. We are no longer a “representative” republic because no one in DC truly represents US. I got tired of the GOP pandering for evangelical votes by trying to out holy each other. We have had 8 years of a “conservative” President who has outspent even his most liberal predecessors. The GOP now expects that Capt Queeg will save us, even though he has no prblem trashing any semblance of core beliefs when it becomes politically expedient. At least the democrats don’t try to hide their socialism, they don’t have to. A majority of the electorate is either too lazy or too ignorant to realize that’s what it is.
I no longer believe that a vote for someone other than the 2 parties is wasted. A wasted vote would be for the lesser of 2 evils or for someone who does not represent my beliefs or views. Call me stupid if you wish. The LP may siphon votes from the GOP but they have no one to blame but themselves.
Why vote for McCain if he has a “good chance” of losing?
Please explain how republicans became entitled to conservative vote?
Did they earn them with conservative policies and practices?
No. (And, btw, the "job" language came from a previous poster to whom I was responding.)
I said this: Its your job to do whats right for the country and that requires stopping the greater of two evils by voting for the lesser of the two evils.
Do you have a problem with that concept?
You have no clue who I vote for, so stop blubbering about facts that are unknown to you.
Go ahead and vote for people you think are nutjobs. That’s typical.
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