Can Barr Turn Obama Libertarian?

31. August 2008 by Greg Kelver.

Don’t laugh, I’m being serious here  - far stranger things have happened in the past and will happen in the future.  As a former hard core right-wing conservative, Bob Barr really is the perfect person to help a hard core, left-wing liberal see the libertarian light too.

The Republican Party has a long and distinguished history of taking long and careful aim in order to more accurately shoot both feet - with VP Cheney perhaps being the exception who still hasn’t quite been  able to master hitting those either. 

Republicans are continually whining about Barr’s presence in the race and how he is “stealing” votes from McCain. Nothing could be further from the truth - particulary since McCain is giving them away faster than Santa Claus hands out presents on Christmas Eve.  His latest bonehead pick of  who will become POTUS if he is unable to continue to perform his duties is pretty much a sell out of America in order to pander to disgruntled Clintonites.  The Republican Party has many very highly qualified women like  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice  who have been thoroughly tested at the national and international level.  Instead, Maverick McCain goes outside the box to pick a person who has less than two years experience as governor of a small, remote state and served as Mayor of a town of 5700 people after being on the city council there.  Call me crazy but is that really the person America wants taking the 3 AM phone call after Iran, North Korea, Russia, or China has just upset the international apple cart?

While hard core R’s may be singing the praise for his “brilliant” choice, skeptical I’s are not signing on so quick.  Preliminary polling indicates that McCain’s pick of Palin may be making full brain “undecideds” (aka Independents) less likely to vote for him  http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/undecideds-dont.html  I suspect that trend will probably continue as more people start asking questions and reality stares them in the face when they go to punch the touchscreen.  Many Americans DO understand that the Vice Presidential choice DOES matter,

But back to the point about Barr making a Libertarian out of President Obama. I try to understand things that I am afraid of.  The more frightened I am of something, the harder I try to understand it. And quite frankly, this election just scares the Hell out of me and has me clinging to both my gun and my religion tighter than ever before.  But in my quest to try to better understand it, I came across an interesting read at the Atlantic.com titled Reconcilable Differences that offers some pretty good insight and understanding about the political mess we have, what has caused it and what might happen in the future.

I do know for a fact that right-wing  conservatives can turn into libertarians after a life changing reality check.  Left-wing socialists can too. Locally, I have watched with interest an anguished young conservative Porter County blogger who is an avid Huckabee supporter migrate to Barr and apparently then on to Obama. Figure that one out. But I fully understand his frustration - been there, done that - but I suspect he will ultimately find a home as a libertarian Independent.   I suspect that deep down inside Obama probably wants to be a Libertarian too, but like conservative Barr in 2002, he just may not know it yet.

For the sake of America, I hope that Bob Barr will be able to get into the presidential debates so he can at least help shine the libertarian spotlight on our future POTUS. In exchange for our ”consent to be governed”, We the People deserve at least that much.  

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