Former Republican Bob Barr has announced his intention to run as a Libertarian against McCain and Obama.
Expected to win the nomination of the Libertarian Party when it holds its convention in Denver over the Memorial Day weekend, Barr, 59, criticized Republican John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, for not being a true conservative.
“There’s not a great deal of substance there in terms of a commitment to cutting the size of government,” Barr said He said no one who had authored the McCain-Feingold campaign reforms that cap individual donations could call himself a conservative, “at least with a straight face.”
Barr also lashed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for saying that if Iran threatens Israel’s existence, the United States should “obliterate Iran.” Calling the New York senator’s statement “tremendously dire,” Barr called the possibility of Iran possessing nuclear weapons “remote” and said he has seen “no evidence that indicates that is an imminent likelihood.”
Saying both the Republican and Democratic Parties have “bought into a system of running a charity called the United States of America,” Barr blasted programs that use public funds to educate the children of illegal immigrants and maintain foreign military bases “that have no more efficacy in the 21st century.”
Contrary to the pundicracy who have already put forth a number of plausible scenarios for Barr’s success, his run is dead on arrival for one simple reason.
The media.
Barr won’t get any face time. He won’t garner the attention of the drive-by media. In short, no one but Barr and his inner circle will know he’s running.
Bob Barr is no Ross Perot. The media will decide if a third party has a real shot at the presidency. It won’t happen in 2008.
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