MORE TRAINS LESS TRAFFIC!

At least that's who's collecting petition signatures in VA-01  ... remember Senate Candidate "Gail for Rail" Parker who ran against Webb?  ... they're collecting for her too

I realize the instinct here is to celebrate the damage this will do to McCain-- but I caution you to think about the implications down ballot.

Sure, this will cause a problem for McCain at the top of the ticket. But what this really does is draw out a fair number of conservative voters who probably would have otherwise stayed home.

This actually has real potential to increase the number of Republican voters who turn out to vote for Bob Barr but will vote Republican in every other instance.

But you could make a very good argument that the party that has the most right to be pissed off right now is the Libertarians. After the last eight years, with Wolf, Goode, and Drake, et al., being rubber stamps to a government that has grown in size at rates unseen since the Great Society, that has shredded the Constitution, that has engaged in an imperialistic and arrogant foreign policy, and that has decided to act as a fiscal failsafe for only the largest political contributors, I fail to see how Libertarians are automatically going to vote Republican.

There's a good argument to be made that they will happily vote for Bob Barr for President and then will vote to punish Republicans down-ticket.  

Bob Barr is running on an anti-immigrant agenda to overturn birth right citizenship and deport all the "illegals"

you think the Help Save Manassas Voters are going to vote for the Dem on the ticket? Not a chance.

Bob Barr isn't an idiot, he knows which voters hate mccain and who he needs to speak to.

He'll be speaking largely to the conservative base who have a problem with McCain. Bob Barr is no libertarian. He's an anti-immigrant, anti-choice candidate.

He's got no money to talk to voters, he'll never reach the truly persuadable libertarians. He'll be confined to getting his message out through existing networks which are largely dominated by the right wing of the party.

 

but, let's be honest -- the 'Help Save Manassas' types were never going to vote Democrat downticket anyways, and those people are so off the deep end that I'd imagine they always vote anyways.

So, it's maybe a small net benefit to Obama's campaign, but I'd be surprised if it makes much difference downticket. Libertarians tend to be an ornery lot, so I doubt most of 'em would ever have been voting McCain. They like the 'pox on both your houses' mentality.  

All Bob Barr has in West Virginia is a lawyer and an undersized list of ballot signatures.  Now crazy Ralph Nader...

Lowell,

It would great to have a U.S. map showing where these candidates will get on the ballot.  I noticed where in 2004 candidates were on the ballot.  Oklahoma is a state notorious for keeping third party candidates off the ballot.  Obviously Barr's inclusion in Georgia was the big deal, since it is his home state.  Apparently he succeeded in that effort.  Nevada, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio are also critical for him to be on the ballot.  

Further, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Carolinas, the Dakotas, Montana, New Mexico, and Colorado are important as well.  West Virginia is not a big loss.  

On his website, Barr doesn't seem to mention which states he'll be on the ballot

of the states where he's gotten on the ballot.  

Barr is expected to be on the ballot in at least 49 states this November.  Barr recently filed a lawsuit against Oklahoma for its overly-restrictive ballot access laws, which he contends are contrary to the First Amendment right to petition one's government for a redress of grievances.  In 2000 and 2004, the Libertarian Party's presidential ticket also made the ballot in 49 states.  In July, a Zogby poll had Barr receiving 6% of the vote nationwide, as well as double digits in several states.  This is a mostly good news for Obama. :)

but here's a list:

http://www.ballot-access.org/b...