Posted by
The-Barefoot-Conservative on Thursday, September 18, 2008 12:00:00 AM
Is Bob Barr the most dangerous person for Republicans this fall?
With all the attention focused on Obama, Biden and the left-wing ideologues, are we in danger of a pincher attack by Bob Barr and the Libertarians? To be sure, not much has been heard from their camp. But lest we deceive ourselves, they are in a position to siphon votes from the McCain-Palin ticket. This could pose a problem in a close election.
It has happened before. In 1980, John Anderson, some argue, took enough votes as a third-party independent to allow Ronald Reagan to win. (Okay, it worked well that time. But Carter was already a wounded candidate because of his failed policies!)
In 1996, Ross Perot, grabbed enough votes to allow Bill Clinton to win. In 2000 many feel that Nader upset a Gore victory.
Now it is 2008. The Reform Party is in shambles. The Green’s should steal some votes from Obama; but what about Barr and his Libertarians?
They have some cred. They are running 2 candidates who were once Republicans and Conservatives: Bob Barr and Wayne Root. Barr was known for his role in the Clinton Impeachment hearings and has big time name recognition.
They have a populist appeal. These candidates opposed the War in Iraq and the Patriot Act. In fact these are two of the issues that led to Barr renouncing his Republicanism.
They could be viewed as outsiders and reformers intent on fixing problems. Thus they could reclaim from McCain and Palin the title of Reformer par excellance.
They are in favor of small government and free markets--Two central platforms of the Republican Party. If enough people recognize this, and feel that the Republicans have abandoned these principals then they could do considerable damage to our cause.
What should we do?
We need to reclaim our small-government free-market-capitalist individual-liberty banner that was our bread and butter. This is our issue and not the Libertarians! McCain and especially Palin are from this stock. But we need to make our case better that these are Republican ideas and that they are going to return to prominence in our party.
Second we need to continue to impress to voters that McCain/Palin are not elitists. Palin defiantly isn’t, but McCain.... Well . . . we should probably leave the wife’s fortune out of this. The voters seem to be crying for real people, this is Palin and mostly McCain. But it needs to continually be emphasized. Sure it’s easy to paint Obama/Biden as elites, but Barr/Root not so much?
Next we need to echo the message that Republicans are best positioned to enforce policy. Even in Barr wins, he will have no supporters in Congress or in the bureaucracy. There is thus no way that his administration could enact changes without a significant fight. In reality they do not have the power to change anything.
Finally we need to be firm in denying the Libertarians a voice in the debates unless they reach the 15% requirement. No debate No exposure. We do not need to be deceitful as those on the Left, for they are a legitimate party. But we need to keep the focus on us and not a splinter group that can not win. If they reach the proper percentage then of course they should be on state ballots, but we should not support any proposals that seek to get around this benchmark. Such attempts have been tried by third parties before and will be tried this year too.
Is Bob Barr the most dangerous man for Republicans this fall? Let’s hope not. Let’s derail his train as we likewise derail Obama. We need all of those people to vote for us in this close election.
GO MCCAIN/PALIN