To resolve this debacle, Bob Barr and Ron Paul should do some EXTREME fighting. I will vote for the winner.

Bobb Barr looks better all the time - who is his running mate?

Libertarian = fiscally conservative + socially liberal = Republican who enjoys a good spliff once in a while.

If Libertarians would vote AGAINST Republicans once in a while, maybe they'd have some credibility. Their voting record in Congress or any state legislature is a joke. They have always sided with fascism so far.

Libertarian. n. Republican who wants to smoke weed and f*

You mean everyone didn't lay down and die because N.O. got some rain. How very un PC. Ron Paul is the only man for President.

Vetter - Actually libertarians do not side with facism. One definition of fascism is where leaders make policy based on a select few over the general welfare of the people. What we have in this country is corporate fascism where politicians are in bed with businesses. Both the republican and democratic parties are entangled in this mess. What made Paul so great is he readily exposed this incestuous relationship for what it is. Hopefully Barr is doing the same. So far I will probably vote Barr.

Vetter - Check out Paul's voting record. It is unmatched in integrity and principle. Stop spreading disinformation.

Ron Paul would be a great president. Too bad he isn't running. The next best choice in Bob Barr and Wayne Root.

Ron Paul is the man. Made too much sense though. The fact that he wasn't sleeping with lobbyist really hurt his chances.

If Ron Paul isn't a factor, why is one Presidential canidate coming to speak at his rally. (Barr) And why is another trying to bargain with him over access to his voter lists? (McCain) Nah, nevermind the "Rally for the republic". Don't bother covering it MSM. After all it's not like he's gonna determine who gets in office or anything, right John McCain!?! The MSM as well as the two party duopoly is raidly becoming irrellivant to the people's concerns and wishes. Just wait til the midterms in two years. Don't say your weren't informed and don't try to act surpirsed. The Revolution has just begun!

argh - Ron Paul is a factor in a less general sense. McCain know that without Barr and Paul supporters he is dead meat, and probably is dead meat even with Paul's supporters. It is my guess that the republicans are going to lose big this go around and rightfully so especially with the costly Iraq war. It has already been the case in 2006 elections and several republican stronghold elections earlier this year. Even Palin played nice to the Paul supporters in an interview recently. The republicans know they are in trouble, and they know that Paul supporters actually stand for truth and what is right while the current neocon agenda has taken so much from us.

he gay men he stick bananna up his butty hole and suck on stick

Woody stated that "If Libertarians would vote AGAINST Republicans once in a while, maybe they'd have some credibility. Their voting record in Congress or any state legislature is a joke. They have always sided with fascism so far." Libertarians believe in removing our armed forces to the homeland to protect our country instead of throwing our weight around the globe, as many Democrats and Republicans have done. Are you saying it is fascism to not start unnecessary wars? Is it fascism to want to erase laws against homosexuality? Is it fascism to want to make medical marijuana legal? If this is your definition of fascism then you are one scary individual.

There have been many elections in which I have voted for the Libertarian if there was one, and in other races on the same election held my nose and voted for the Democrat if no Libertarian was running. As Republicans have become less and less fiscally conservative, this trend has increased. If you just HAVE to blame someone for the near 50/50 vote split in 2000 and the resulting Supreme Court (s)election of our current Clown-in-Chief, you should target the Ralph Nader "independents."

In his paranoia Woody thinks most Libertarians must lean Republican. That's funny because all the paranoid Republicans I know are worried about the Ron Paul voters going to Obama. Libertarians and Ron Paul supporters won't decide this election, but we have discovered that we're not completely alone, and that a long-term political education of the American citizenry is not only possible, but necessary. Part of that education will unfold naturally as the two-party economy fails and folds, as a bloated foreign intrigue military infrastructure collapses in on itself and relegates us to post-Superpower status, and as the disappointments of unfulfilled promises of either candidate accumulate. Part of it will come from modest but sustained efforts to educate people on the U.S. Constitution and the proper and improper roles of government. This education will be slow, incremental, and inevitable. We are patient enough to watch you fail your way to knowledge.

Enjoy your Big Government President, whichever party he comes from. We'll continue enjoying life in spite of government, and without the need for the intense self-victimization mythos so intrinsic to all the pundits of the two largest parties. Keep blaming each other; keep looking to government to solve your problems. I'll still be asking you in 10, 20, or 30 years (as I was asking 30 years ago): How's that working for you?

Civil Libertarian - Awesome comment. You are right, education will be slow paced. We have too many interested in power and access and not in what really matters for the people of this country.

Voting either Libertarian (Barr) or Constitution (Balwin) this fall. Absolutely.

Sorry... Baldwin is the Constitution candidate.

To Civil Libertarian:

I said no such thing, that was Vetter. All I said was Libertarians are GOPers who like to get stoned. Please be a little more careful when attributing commentary to posters.

I will say that was one heck of screed, however. Do you have a manifesto I can look at?

Wow, the most sane and rational blog entry comments I've seen here yet. Go figure...(media thinking...)those radical Libertarians are perhaps not as radical as we thought.

Woody - I have never done drugs, and I am a libertarian. I get the joke though.

I love Ron Paul! He's the real maverick.

I wish I could go to the Paul rally. Have too many things going on. Good luck to Ron Paul, and good luck to Barr in winning over some of the Paul people.

All the way in for Chuck Baldwin. Bob Barr is a good choice too but his support of the Patriot Act makes him second best for me.
Either way a vote for Baldwin or Barr is a vote for freedom, that is what matters

Randy - I agree. I will see who is on the ballot here in NM.

I am a former Obama supporter, a black woman, and a traitor to my race; so I have been told. Just joking, but in so many words, yes.

They'll wake up 4 years.

I wish I could be there.

Go Ron Paul!

Ron Paul 08.

Barr is on the ballot here in Florida, and I'm voting for him! You better freakin' believe it. I really don't care if Obama gets elected, the GOP NEEDS to be punished for what they did to us during this primary season.

Also I can't wait to see the Mcainiacs at work cry in their beer. LOL

Vote Liberty!

Bob Barr's running mate is Wayne Allen Root.

Good businessman, good father, good VP.

www.rootforamerica.com/

My apologies, Woody. Yes, I certainly should have been more conscientious in my attribution. No, I don't have a manifesto. Thanks for asking.

Cedric - The GOP needs to be punished for the last 8 years especially in foreign policy.

Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr is for less government, less taxes and more freedom.

To comprehensively learn about him, go to this Wikipedia website address, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Barr.

As a voter, it's your personal responsibility and American duty to learn about all of the candidates!

I'll take Chuck for now. I just don't trust Barr although he gets a bad rap for the Patriot Act. They needed him to vote for it, so he could work on it in committee. Granted, it didn't turn out well, but that's why. I just don't think his grasp of the constitution is as good as Baldwin. Although, it's still just a protest vote. After all Obama and McCain are both wefare/warfare queens of the state. We are headed for another Jimmy Carter administration of world occupation and economic destruction. There is NO WAY around it now. The next four years are going to be damn tough wether we like it or not. And BOTH parties signed off on this. The republican administration AND the Democratic House and Senate. Bush/Reid and Pelosi should be lucky they aren't put in jail for what they have done to our country. Both parties have failed you, me our children's future and the rest of the country. And we we silently consenting to it the whole time. We enabled this, now we must learn to live with the consequences.

"Libertarians are GOPers who liked to get stoned...?"

Ummm, sorry, but I don't even drink tea.

Libertarians are not into drugs. Drugs are merely a pressure point at which people demonstrate their ideological consistency. Since few people think that using drugs is a good idea, this is an issue where you get to stand up and say, "I don't like drugs, but the government can still dang well keep out of it, thanks."

How I love Sarah Palin
How I'd love to take her sailin
And talk to her bout qualin
And when we can go whalin

Baldwin isn't a bad choice, but his willingness to blend religion and government are somewhat alarming. Having said that, I'd not mind dealing with that over the R & D team.

Preferably, though, Barr would be elected. Assuming that he's being honest, he's the most viable candidate in the "also ran" mix.

Since Ron Paul has ducked out, I am voting for Bob Barr and Wayne Root. I am angry with the Republican party leadership that thinks they can do whatever they want by railroading a jerk like John McCain down the American people's throat. They tried that with Wilkie in 1940, Dewey in 1944 & 48, Dole in 1996, and now Marxist McCain, the brainwashed Viet Cong resident whose buddies consist of LIEberman, Feingold, Kennedy, and other leading liberals. When will the Republican party wake up?

I would've voted for Ron Paul if he were running, and his message is the truth to me. Since he's not, I'll vote for Bob Barr, who sounds better just about every time I hear him. I'll admit I don't know that much about Baldwin or his party. Anything in support of the Constitution and limited government sounds good to me. However, I did see some info from their bylaws that seems to go overboard on Christianity in the American system of governance. It seemed contrary to the very basic principle of separation of church and state when I read it. That was kind of off putting, so I'll go with Barr. I think his more moderate pitch of libertarianism is what we need to take it mainstream and show Americans that it is not at all kooky, but a return to the traditional philosophy of American governance. It's a thinking person's party.

Matt, I'm on the same page you are.

Bob Barr isn't a Libertarian; he isn't even a libertarian. He's an anti-Federalist. He doesn't believe that government shouldn't make decisions about your personal life, he just believes that the Federal government shouldn't. He's said—at the LP convention, no less—that he's in favor of states passing laws against gay marriage and drug consumption. Last I checked, libertarianism was about liberty, not about buck-passing.

If you're going to take a stand and vote for someone that has no chance of winning, why vote for Bob Barr? Write in Ron Paul instead. It sends a message to the Republicrats that we aren't going to take crap from then anymore, it sends a message to Bob Barr and the LP that we believe in liberty at ALL levels of government, and it sends a message to Ron Paul that people really do want him in the White House.

Some Dude,
Yes, you're right about Bob Barr having a lot of residual right-wingedness in him. But he has it correct about making Washington stick to the Constitution first and then let things sort themselves out at the state level. Like ol' Michael Dukakis was quoted as saying during the '88 election, "A fish rots from the head down." An old Greek saying, I believe it was, and I'm willing to pull the lever for Barr because he's dealing with the proper first step in getting our government back to where the head of the fish, Washington, is not allowed to spread its rotting nature to the rest of the country. As of now, it has created a national debt that threatens to cause a second Great Depression, and neither the Republican nor Democratic parties are going to do ANYTHING to deal with it. That is truly frightening.

They both don't "want the same thing".

Barr has never condemned US imperialism and criminal wars of aggression. For Ron Paul, it's his centerpiece. No amount of fudging or weasel-wording can obscure the differences. Paul is libertarian, Barr is not.

Matt hits the nail on the head, both on the Constitution Party and Bob Barr.

The GOP (Grasping Old Pharts) are terrified of Ron Paul and of Bob Barr. I will vote for Barr even though I'd much prefer Ron Paul. I would never vote for Obama or McCain and I'm not fooled by Palin.

On election day, send a big fat message to the Republicans and Democrats!

Hey, Dude! What you say of Bob Barr is also true of Ron Paul. He also wants to dump court decisions that constrict states from passing laws the Constitution leaves them free to enact. In fact, the only hope for the Freedom movement in the USA is for the Libertarian and Constitution Parties to join forces on a joint platform of constraining the Federal government without prejudice to policies regarding state legislation.

LIB261 - Bob Barr's platform plank on foreign military engagements could have been written by Ron Paul himself:

http://www.bobbarr2008.com/issues/foreign-intervention-foreign-bases/

If a third party can throw a key battleground state either way it will be a significant news event, winning substantial media attention for that party.

Bob Barr or Ralph Nader have potential. Chuck Baldwin or writing in Ron Paul do not. Ron Paul is great but writing him in sends a message no one will receive.