Topic: Bob Barr
Barr vs. McCain (I)

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The McCain campaign is doing its best to keep Bob Barr out of the news. But Barr has found an innovative way to fight back.

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by George Dance
(libertarian)
Wednesday, October 29, 2008

As Election Day nears, third parties are dropping in the polls, as usual in a U.S. presidential election. Various theories have been advanced to explain that well-known phenomenon. Mine is that one cause is the drop-off of national press and (especially) television coverage -- the notorious "main stream media blackout" (MSMB) on all but the Democratic and Republican candidates. Thanks to the MSMB, most voters who have been impressed during an election cyle by a third party candidate will have simply forgotten about that candidate by November 4.

The Barr campaign is suffering from that, but with an added twist. In the face of a national blackout, third parties tend to run their campaigns to maximize local press and TV; Barr's (and Nader's) have been paradigm examples this year. Even here, though, Barr's bucket has been coming up dry recently.

For instance, on Oct. 22 Barr spoke at the University of Cincinnati, a type of venue that in the past has resulted in good local press. This time, though, there was no local coverage at all. Only one newspaper reported on the event at all: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which had embedded reporter Jill Vejnoska was in the Barr campaign for the day.

So what happened? What kept Barr out of the papers and off the air that day? Vejnoska tells us exactly what happened; at the same time as, and a few short miles from where, Barr is speaking,

The campaign plane touches down and John McCain emerges to the booming chorus of "Eye of the Tiger" and the raucous cheers of 3,000 supporters. TV cameras record every "Joe the Plumber"-referencing moment by the Republican presidential nominee, whose airport rally will dominate local newscasts. (1)

Which it did. As a result, Barr was completely blacked out.

Barr had expected that. "The two states we just found out about today are Ohio and New Hampshire, where McCain apparently added stops to his schedule in order to shadow us," he had told the Washington Times the previous day. Barr claimed that the McCain camp was shadowing him as deliberate policy, because they are afraid of him spoiling McCain's chances in swing states like those, "the critical ones, in which the gaps between Senators McCain and Obama are smaller than what we are polling." (2)

A McCain spokesman shrugged off the claim. However, it is undeniable that the GOP has been worrying about Barr's spoiler impact since he became the Libertarian nominee. A variety of Republican luminaries, including Newt Gingrich, spent the summer publicly and privately asking Barr to withdraw.

It is also certain that they had a reason to worry -- several constituent parts of the GOP base have had serious problems with a McCain candidacy, as shown by (for one example) the sharply increased late-primary vote for Ron Paul -- and that the Barr campaign has been targetting just those constituencies for just that reason.

Bob Barr also, as I discovered in May, went on the enemies list of Karl Rove (who has been pulling strings in the campaign since Bush's anointing of McCain in April) back in 2002, due to Barr's early leadership role in the campaign against the USA PATRIOT Act. (3) From what I've read, once one goes onto that list, one stays on. .

Rove is reportedly the man behind the talk-show blackout of Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik in 2004. As reported after that election, the GOP had threatened to blackball any host who booked Badnarik. A similar story may come out this time; as of now, we have only the fact that (after a promising two appearances on Colbert) Barr has had next to no talk-show face time. Book Bob Barr, and you don't get Sarah Palin; what host could be expected to stand up to that?

Palin's very selection owes much to the perceived Barr threat. McCain's vision, from the start, was to run a bipartisan campaign with former Democratic Vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman as his running mate, and he held to that until almost the end of August. He caved only after Gingrich went public with the warning that that ticket would be dead on arrival. Gingrich's prediction: if Lieberman were nominated, Barr would take 15% of the vote.

It is certainly fair to say that the Republicans have done their best to minimize the impact of Barr's candidacy, and that they have succeeded in many of the conventional areas. The "Barr Buzz" that I wrote about so hopefully in May is long gone, replaced by the "Barr Blackout."

Barr has been trying different things to shine his light through that blackout. Some have been embarrassing, as when he tried to capitalize on the "Joe the Plumber" nonsense by temporarily dubbing himself "Bob the Builder." But one move of his was inspired.

Barr has begun blogging at the widely-read (1.2 million visitors last month, per Compete) online magazine, Townhall. He has been using that platform to make one last direct appeal to his targeted GOP constituencies, even (or especially) if that means dealing a final blow to the McCain campaign. In the process, he has even managed to pierce the MSMB once or twice.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Barr's first Townhall effort was not a counterattack on the McCain camp, but a rather wonkish article on what he has been saying throughout and on the financial crisis, called "Time for Real Economic Reform." That first column did not crack the press barrier, though it gained favorable, if limited, attention on the blogosphere.

Michigan Redneck II, possibly Barr's biggest fan in the state, ran a piece called, "Bob Barr is a Man with a Plan," quoting many of the highlights including:

• rather than approve new bailouts, the federal government should cut regulatory burdens on hard-hit businesses. Environmental rules are noteworthy for their cost and inefficiency, for instance. It makes more sense to relax, or, better yet, end Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards on vehicles, which have imposed a huge cost burden on the auto industry, than to provide the companies with billions of dollars in loans in order to help them meet ever-increasing regulatory mandates.
• Washington should carefully reconsider its regulatory strategies more broadly. Policymakers should initiate a detailed audit of federal rules, relaxing or eliminating any regulations for which costs outweigh benefits.
• Over the longer term, we must deal with the mountain of future federal liabilities and obligations -- FDIC bank guarantees, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation promises, Social Security and Medicare liabilities, and more. So far just in the past few weeks, the federal government has undertaken roughly $2 trillion in bailouts. Total unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, that is, the excess of promised benefits over expected revenues, exceeds $100 trillion more than 50 times as much as these recent, costly bailouts!
• The American people have repeatedly demonstrated their capacity to meet great challenges. The government must stop interfering with their ability to prepare for future challenges. America can and must once again lead the world in economic power and growth, through exercise of a free-market economy; not follow meekly behind the U.K. and our other European friends that for decades have been pushing our country to emulate their model of centrally-managed economies. (4)

Marc Gallagher at Liberty Maven also ran a short notice with some good quotes from Barr's article:

After several huge, government bailouts, and other measures placing trillions of taxpayer dollars at risk, the nation's financial system remains far from stable. There is much more work that needs to be done before the economy will return to its growth path, but it cannot be more of the same, heavy-handed government mandates that have failed us time and again. [...]

Limiting political interference in the economy also requires limiting the ability of the Federal Reserve to manipulate the currency for political purposes. The Fed's "easy money" policy over the last decade greatly contributed to an artificial increase in lending and property values. Unfortunately, it is the drop in those values which is the basis of today's crisis. The ill-advised loosening of SEC regulations that had been in place to insure solvency and transparency in the operation of major investment firms, also contributed to the current financial crisis. (5)

Tracking response also led me to the blog of Conservative Libertarian Alex Yepiz, who noted: "I guess Townhall has figured out that many of their 'conservatives' are really economic liberals. They just picked up Bob Barr as a columnist, and here is what he had to say:

The ongoing financial crisis demonstrates why, first, we must limit political interference in the economy. It was sustained federal pressure to increase mortgage lending, through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, as well as the Community Reinvestment Act, which helped generate the huge economic bubble that just burst at great cost to every American.

"and this

Policymakers also need to formally and clearly end the bailouts. This step is critical to promote private economic retrenchment and corporate work-outs. Significant financial cutbacks are painful, but inevitable. However, companies will resist taking these necessary steps if they believe they can count on a federal bailout. Distortions caused by government injecting billions of dollars into certain preferred banks and not others, only further impedes essential market based decisions by banks and other financial institutions to bring the markets back into balance.

Yepiz concluded: "This is why I'm voting for Bob Barr. he is the ONLY candidate that is calling for radical cuts in the size of government. This entire 'economic crisis' is due to the government's involvement in things that should be left alone." (6)

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Read Barr's full Townhall column here:

Time for Real Economic Reform.

http://townhall.com/Columnists/BobBarr/2008/10/17/time_for_real_economic_reform?page=full&comments=true

Also watch:

Bob Barr: "Not a Dime's Worth of Difference"

YouTube, Oct. 21, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXQ9Op8thmA

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Sources:

(1) Jill Vejnoska, "Bob Barr relishes spoiler role," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 26, 2008.
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories/2008/10/26/barr_1026_3DOT.html

(2) Stephen Dinan & Ralph Z. Hallow, "Libertarian Barr says he scares McCain," Washington Times, Oct. 21, 2008.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/21/libertarian-barr-says-he-scares-mccain/

(3) George Dance, "Ron Paul's former aide reveals: 'We needed' Barr to vote for the PATRIOT Act," Nolan Chart, May 24, 2008.
http://www.nolanchart.com/article3876.html

(4) "Bob Barr is a Man with a Plan," Michigan Redneck II, Oct. 18, 2008.
http://michiganredneck.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/bob-barr-is-a-man-with-a-plan/

(5) Bob Barr says it's "Time For Real Economic Reform," Liberty Maven, Oct. 17, 2008.
http://libertymaven.com/2008/10/17/bob-barr-says-its-time-for-real-economic-reform/2607/

(6) Alex Yepiz, "Bob Barr at Townhall," Alex Yepiz blog, Oct. 17, 2008.
http://alexyepiz.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/bob-barr-at-townhall/

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Also read:

Barr vs. McCain (II): The Wasted Vote

http://www.nolanchart.com/article5379.html
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Barr vs. McCain (III): Socialism

http://www.nolanchart.com/article5386.html
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©2008 George Dance, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of George Dance only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. George Dance is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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