I have been seeing lots of mumbo jumbo in the media about Bob Barr hurting John McCain’s chances for election as the United States president. I would respectfully disagree with the general assertion that Bob Barr’s candidacy overwhelmingly supports Barrack Obama to McCain’s detriment. For one, I believe that our mainstream media has fallen into the ill logic that equates Bob Barr’s candidacy to Ralph Nader’s independent run in 2000. Here the media concluded that the Nader run cost Al Gore the presidency.
Simply put, to believe this conclusion is to accept that only Florida’s vote
mattered in deciding the year 2000 presidential election.
Concerning the matter that Bob Barr will cause John McCain more pain than Barrack Obama is to deny the fact that first and foremost Bob Barr is running as a small government Libertarian candidate which neither Barrack Obama nor John McCain are doing. Libertarian candidates like Bob Barr are for minimizing government influence over our lives and shrinking the governmental apparatus. If Al Gore was in fact “Naderized” it would have been more due to the fact that Ralph Nader ran on very similar issues to the Democrats. Ralph Nader simply put an anti-establishment spin on his message and as a result it resonated well with many younger liberal voters. Bob Barr on the other hand has serious differences with both John McCain and Barrack Obama regarding the war in Iraq, how to deal with Iran, the overblown fiscal budget, border security, the detainees in Guantanamo and many other issues. Secondly, not only is Ralph Nader also in this race but so is Cynthia McKinney, who is running for the Green Party. She is not only a former Democratic congresswoman but she is also an African American. Both Nader and McKinney will put a drag on Barrack Obama rather than John McCain.
There are clear distinctions on the Libertarian sides of the major issues facing our country as opposed to both the Republican and Democratic sides. I would hope that Americans would be much more responsible in looking closely at the candidates rather than simply whining that a third candidate only hurts their candidate’s chances of winning. When it comes down to it, if there is more merit in John McCain’s positions he won’t have to worry about Barrack Obama nor Bob Barr.
Personally, I think anyone should look at where Bob Barr stands before deciding against him.
June 30, 2008 at 14:48 |
Yes, I do agree. It is getting tiresome when some of the pundits are just unable to get get past the “wasted vote” argument, or the “vote for Bob Barr equals a vote for Obama” mentality. It’s funny that they are bringing up Ralph Nader so often, because I can remember Nader being frustrated at the same “third party vote equals a wasted vote” mentality presented by the msm.
I didn’t agree with many a lot of Nader’s political philosophy, but I do agree with a lot of his views on what has happened with our two parties–they are largely the same party.
It’s interesting that so many in both parties are disgusted and looking elsewhere for a new political home.
I dig the blog! Thanks for stopping by mine. Have a great Monday.