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.
Run Bob Run! A Barr campaign would virtually guarantee a Democratic victory. Obama in ‘08
I’m voting for Ron Paul. If he doesn’t win, I hope a Libertarian wins.
Dotty Beagle:
This is always the Republican threat: “If a credible third party candiate runs it will take away votes from our admittedly imperfect candidate, meaning the anti-Christ will surely win, thus raising taxes and flooding the Supreme Court for decades to come with devil worshippers….”
But we’re calling your bluff.
IF you are TRULY and SINCERELY concerned about the future of America should the Whitehouse fall to the Democrats, THEN Republicans will ALL vote Libertarian so that the conservative vote does not get split — because, as you said, you cannot bear to see this nation succumb to the evils of the left…
I am sure none of you will mind sacrificing such a small matter as petty party loyalty for the much greater good — for love of country!
I’ve said from the very beginning of this election cycle — well before John McCain even officially announced — that McCain was the one candidate who would be absolutely unacceptable to true conservatives (myself included) as the GOP nominee. I said that I would not vote for McCain under any circumstances. I meant what I said then, and I still do. I will follow through this November by voting a third option for POTUS and VPOTUS while possibly still voting GOP only in the down-ballot contests this time around. My guess is that there will be thousands of conservatives (usually reliable GOP voters) who will not support McCain (regardless of who the Democrat nominee is) in November’s general election — possibly even enough in a number of so-called “swing” states to cost the GOP any chance at keeping the White House if this election proves to be as close, if not closer, than the 2000 and 2004 elections. The national GOP party establishment will have no one to blame but themselves if this is the ultimate outcome.
I have consistently voted Republican for 30 years now, but I cannot and will not vote for John McCain because he has screwed conservatives too many times. In my opinion, the most egregious example of this was when McCain arrogantly placed his personal political agenda above the Bill of Rights of our United States Constitution by defecating all over the 1st Amendment with that onerous, odiferous, and blatantly unconstitutional piece of excrement known as the McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan so-called bipartisan campaign finance reform bill. Even if the constitutionality of some parts of that bill MIGHT have been debatable, the 60-day ban on issue ads was unquestionably a violation of our 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech. With that one, McCain led the charge for all three branches of our federal government to fail us.
Then, adding insult to injury, he and 13 co-conspirators in the U.S. Senate ruined an historic opportunity to put a stop once and for all to the use of the filibuster in the Senate to circumvent the Founders’ intent for the advice and consent role of the Senate regarding a President’s judicial nominations. For me, that was the last straw in a long line of arrogant transgressions by John McCain against conservatives, fellow Republicans, fellow citizens, and worst of all, the U.S. Constitution. His military record is honorable and commendable. I am a Navy veteran myself and a life member of the VFW, but as far as I am concerned McCain’s military record, however honorable, is entirely separate and distinct from his lousy record in the U.S. Congress.
So, if Bob Barr decides to run for President as the nominee of the Libertarian Party, then I will happily vote for him and probably even do whatever I can with my limited time and resources to try to assist his campaign here in Southwest Georgia. I believe that the national GOP establishment wanted a heavily front-loaded primary season this time around with “winner-take-all” states in the Northeast because they knew that would favor a Rockefeller-style Republican who might be conservative on fiscal policy, but little else — in other words, a “RINO” in today’s conservative vernacular. They deliberately did what they could to facilitate this, thinking that’s what was needed. They probably thought it would be Giuliani, but it wound up being McCain.
Now they’re stuck with McCain, and they expect the conservative base (at least a third or more of the party) to hold our noses, to vote for the lesser of two evils, to let them urinate down our backs and tell us it’s raining, to bend over and grab our ankles for McCain — again. Well, not me. I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore. I am fed up with the party leadership. This was not only foolish; it was stupid. That is the kind of arrogance that cost them majorities in the House and Senate. Now, it may very well cost them the White House, which means it will probably cost them any chance of anymore nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court anytime soon — and it’s their own damn fault.
Hillary or Obama versus McCain? You call that a choice? You may as well ask me whether I’d rather have syphilis or gonorrhea. Hell, neither one! And by the way, it is IRRELEVANT who McCain chooses as a running mate because McCain himself is unacceptable. It is not “irritation” or “annoyance” felt by the conservative base of the GOP; it is visceral disgust. The national GOP establishment took one helluva gamble this election cycle. They have rolled the dice big-time, and we’re all going to pay a very heavy price. It may well be time for those of us who are the true conservatives, the constitutional conservatives, to bolt the GOP for the Libertarian Party.
Mitch Hiers
Consitutional Conservative
Moultrie, GA
It amuses me to see how the liberals have infected this blog (oops, I mean “former Republicans”)…
For those of you who are serious about this, consider that should the sky fall and Bob Barr be elected, he will be in office with a Congress consisting of Republicans and Democrats, not libertarians. He will have no natural constituency. He will be a gelding, unable to accomplish a single thing.
But he will engender much hatred toward the libertarians if he does run, because he will de facto be handing the election to Obama/Clinton. And by doing so, he will intentionally be moving the country far, far to the left. (HINT, you idiots: THAT’S THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM WHERE YOU BELIEVE WE SHOULD BE HEADED).
So get your 15 minutes of fame now, and it will be the last gasp of libertarianism for the next 20 years.
WHAT A STUPID STUNT. I WAS WONDERING HOW HILLARY WAS GOING TO PULL THIS OFF; NOW IT LOOKS LIKE SHE HAS A FRIEND IN ANGRY LITTLE BOB BARR. CLINTON/BARR 2008.
Great news!
The Libertarians are sounding a bit smug. Maybe they think they are somehow superior to everyone else. (which makes them equal).. No one in their right mind can believe that Barr or any candidate outside of the mainstream could get ANYTHING accomplished as President.. Even if a miracle happened and an alternative party candidate got elected, the Dems and Reps would stone-wall anything and everything he tried to do.. The correct way for a person to build a rep and then campaign for higher office would be to straighten his own party out.. He should expose the corrupt members, expose the corruption, and force out those who have strayed from the tenets and ideals of the party.. Barr has been around for a long enough time to know who the bogies are and how to de-rail them.. — Barr is just another ego-maniac who couldn’t rise to the top in one party, so he decided to jump to another and give it another try..
Bob Barr announce that he is running for President of the Unitied States! YES Run Bob Run!
Bob Barr announce that he is running for President of the Unitied States! YES Run Bob Run!
I’ll vote for any PRO Gun candidate—I think Bob Barr is the man