Bob Barr Weighing Presidential Run
File: Former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr was an impeachment manager against President Bill Clinton in 1998. (AP video still)
Former Republican Georgia Rep. Bob Barr is considering a run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket.
Barr told FOX News on Tuesday that he should know in the next few days whether he is going to go for it.
If he does decide to make an announcement in the next few days, Barr said it “would not be in either Washington or Atlanta.“
Another source todl FOX News that the announcement should happen this weekend, probably on April 5. That is the day Barr is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Heartland Libertarian Conference in Kansas City, Mo.
Barr, who joined the Libertarian Party after leaving Congress in 2003, is looking to attract conservatives who are unhappy with the choice of John McCain as the expected Republican presidential nominee. McCain and Barr are at odds primarily over the role of U.S troops in Iraq, although both agree that tough interrogation methods should not be permitted.
FITNews, who was first to report the possible presidential bid, wrote that Barr will receive the endorsement of Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, a GOP presidential candidate who is still technically in the race but has not suggested he would throw his support to McCain. McCain and Paul, who ran on the Libertarian Party presidential ticket in 1988, also are at odds primarily over the role of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Barr, who represented Georgia’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House from 1995-2003 and served as a House manager during impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that he identifies closely with Paul’s outlook.
“Ron Paul tapped into a great deal of that dissatisfaction and that awareness. Unfortunately, working through the Republican party structure, it became impossible for him to really move forward with his movement. But we have to have ….a rallying point out there to harness that energy, that freedom in this election cycle,” he said.
Click here to read the FITNews article on Barr’s possible run for president.
FOX News’ David M. Lewkowict contributed to this report.
Gimme a break! This guy is a Libertarian because he couldn’t win reelection in his own little Georgia congressional district as a Republican.
16 minutes of his 15 minutes of fame is up.
I think that 3rd parties have every right to run. Nader did not “cost” Gore anything in 2000. Gore could not convince those that did vote for Nader to vote for him. People want a real choice not just politicians in DC who at the end of the day are not that different.
Also if I dont want to vote for McCain why should I if I feel he is not the best guy for the job? See McCain needs to convince me that he is. If he can not do that its not enough to say “o well Obama is worse” thats not a good reason to vote for McCain. The same can be said about Nader.
One has to ask, Why now? To mount a campaign now would only accomplish what Pero and Buchannan did and that was to assure that Clinton gets in the White House without a clear majority!. I too am not happy with the Republican party but I feel as long as the two party system agrres to keep others out well we will never get a third party in. So we have to mount the fight to change the present parties we now have. That means a true conserted effort during the primary. If not well then at least the third parties must make their intentions known early in the primary races. Not this eleventh hour manuevar.
In my humble opinion.
Bob Adams
cousin to John
I am still voting for Ron Paul. If most of america listened to him , and not there tv, they would vote for him too.
Barr will draw the vote of those conservatives who want us out of Iraq immediately–which means he’ll attract himself and Ron Paul–he is no threat to McCain–as most true conservatives do not want us to “embrace defeat”.
Good for Bob,
He’s a real conservative, the kind the neo-cons have almost made extinct. Real conservatives do not start pre-emptive, undeclared wars. Real conservatives balance the budget. Real conservatives stand up for civil liberties and despise domestic spying for what it is, tyranny.
Run Bob, run!
Adam T.
S. Portland, Maine
Now is EXACTLY the time for those whom you style as “spoilers”. You use standard fear tactics to get the electorate “back in line” (as you partisans see it). Horror of horrors!–there might be a Democrat in the White House (or substitute that term with Republican). Same difference.
But it is the “two party” system itself that has failed this nation, literally to its near ruin. The two parties ARE the problem, and the only way to fix it is to refuse to be addicted to them anymore.
Your fear mongering calls again for supporting an out of touch, recklessly corrupt, power hungry Republican Party (or Democratic Party–same difference) is no more different than the calls of the Soviet Communists and Pravda calling for support of their corrupt party. No different.
If not now, when? Never according to you.
The Republicans had their chance at governmental leadership, and they blew it.
You, and the rest of the partisan lackeys fear, yes indeed you do.
You fear the people rising up and taking back control of their government which they lost to the Federalists, like those in the Republican Party (substitute Democrat), long ago.
Fear all you want. Liberty is at stake. There’s not a grain of difference between Democrat or Republican today other than the coat of paint. One red, one blue. Both junk.
I say the machinery needs to be hauled off to the scrap yard. And this mess of the “lessor of two evils” is what comes out the back end of a junk yard dog–which is what amounts to the true worth of both of those “big box” parties. I ain’t laying in in it. You want to, that’s your problem.
New equipment. You’re selling junk. Don’t want it. Not interested.
I say run. Hope he wins. Both the big parties are out of control. Nothing is going to change until we take our country back and get the little rich boys out of power.
It’s fine and dandy that they want to be the alternative to McCain, but they could easily put a Dem in the White house by taking away votes from him. That is even worse than McCain.
Thank God there is the possiblity of a decent candidate (that I have heard of before) that might consider running. When will we know if this true or just a rumor?