Mainly the libertarians who normally vote Republican but are tired of Bush-style big government. The Ron Paul people seem to be getting behind him as well.

The Democratic base should be unified by the time of the election - with McCain's strident anti-woman record exposed and Senator Clinton campaigning for Obama. The same cannot be said for the Republicans - McCain couldn't pull more than 80% of the vote in most of the uncontested primaries, even last month. CQ reported that only 8% of Bush's biggest donors have donated to McCain (2.3% of those have donated to Obama or Clinton this cycle.)

Nah, he will pull from the right, not the left.

He's amusing, but I don't seem him even as the factor Nader was.

Besides, if your loaded enough to vote for Barr instead of Obama, chances are, you forget to vote anyway?

Bob Barr is more a right wing nut than a libertarian he'll pull the rug out from under McCain.

Still you are right Barr is no friend of any Lefty.

Legalizing drugs makes a lot of sense, it would be suicide for the Democrats to advocate it so i'm glad there's one party out there doing it.

If Nader draws votes away from one candidate, it will be Obama. Barr has the potential to take some away from Obama and McCain. So i agree we shouldn't help him.

Nader is running isn't he? Is he on the ballot in many states?

barr is pro-life, isn't he?

I don't know. His Clinton nonsense should mean that Obama would pull the liberal libertarian vote. But lots of libertarians would never vote for Obama, they'd hold their nose to vote for McCain instead. That's where the money lies.

Near as I can tell from the link you provided, Bob Barr decided the drug war was a failure based on a pair of supposedly steroid-related murders committed by a professional wrestler. As compelling as I'm sure this is going to be to...someone, that doesn't change that he remains known throughout the South for being (in his own words,) a "Wiccan mocking, Clinton impeaching Republican".

The people who vote Libertarian are the diehard anti-government types who are aware that the Republicans aren't so much opposed to government as they are to competently-run government. Other planks of the Libertarian Party platform you failed to mention includes abolishing the income tax, the complete repeal of all antitrust laws, an end to social security, and a belief that "free markets" will be responsible for all education, health care and environmental initiatives.

Exactly what votes from the left do you expect that platform to pull in?

My fondest memories of Bob were him ranting about Impeaching the Big Dog, and thinking, "it really IS the fact they realize Bill has turned down more BJ's then they have ever even gotten close too...."

Bob is a troll, but kind of a funny sad one.

If he's good enough for Tom Delay's wife, then he's good enough for...  uh, whomever.

If McCain were a conservative in the Ronald Reagan/George W. Bush mold I think you'd have a solid argument.  Since he's not (and that's just the pov of many conservatives) Bob Barr might draw many more Republicans away from McCain than you'd think (because they see Barr, a name they recognize, as a "true" conservative and McCain as a liberal sell-out).  Understand the argument you're making about social issues, but the fundie and anti-tax factions of the GOP have long had an uneasy alliance (and it's the second group, not the first, who might run to Barr).

In the Fall of 2000, I was working to kill Censorship and "Secret Search Warrant" provisions of the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act which had unanimously cleared the Senate, and was pending in the House Judiciary Committee.

I first persuaded my Rep, Tammy Baldwin, a Committee member to remove the Bill from the Consent Calendar, putting it on the non-expedited review track.

Next stops were the Libertarian and Firearms boards, where I pointed out that the Secret Search provisions would impact firearms as well as drug investigations, and the censorship provisions provided a structure which, under a future Democratic Congress, could be applied to restrict discussion of firearms.

A week later, Tammy was back in Madison, and asked "Ben, How did you get Bob Barr to call me?" It seems that thru the first 3 years of their service on the Judiciary Committee, he'd rebuffed all her efforts to engage him outside formal session, going so far as to turn his back when she'd try to approach him in the hallway, due to her sexual orientation.

The objectionable provisions were stripped, the bill passed without them. Baldwin and Barr became friends, joined in a not very successful rearguard effort to amend Patriot.

Barr is not pro-choice and since he was in congress, people know this.  It will also come out in the GE that he introduced impeachment in congress against Bill Clinton.  Now, conservatives and repubs might love him for that, but democrats are not as impressed.  And for your indication that Bill clinton did not have a mandate, his terms in office were some of the best terms in office that I have lived through.  If it takes that little of a mandate to have a decade like the 90s then I am all for a plurality.  Beside the fact that Barr and the Libertarian party are not like Perot in the least, not even close.  Conservatives will be very attracted to Barr, he is their kind of guy and he has a track record to prove it.

There are really two forces at work here, married for convenience sake. Remember that many Libertarians opposed the Barr nomination because of his moralizing BS during the Clinton years.

Bob Barr is known throughout the South as the guy who roasted the Clintons. Many conservatives love him for that. My right-wing father-in-law proudly showed off an autograph picture of Barr to me.

Libertarians have a different agenda than Barr for the most part. But they agree on the Patriot Act, economic issues and the drug war. Instead of putting up some no-name, they put up a guy who could get real votes.

Barr will draw more from the right than the left. Count on it. Left-wing protest votes will go to Nader.

You are a special special snowflake.

Have a gold sticker.