Bob Barr on $500 Shoes & Flag Lapel Pins

[Herb Schaffler]

July 31st, 2008 by Bob Barr
Did you notice the top stories from the campaign trail yesterday?
Campaigning for the Presidency leaves me little time to watch much in the way of news coverage but a couple of short glances once again confirms that voters have two poor choices at the top and that news coverage is pathetic.
First, if there is one story that the media is missing BIG TIME, and voters should be outraged at this, is the fact that we are down to 96 days before the election and in some states early and absentee voting begins in nine weeks, and neither candidate has told us who is going to be his running mate!
The second most powerful man in the free world is the Vice President of the United States. Given that power and the even more scary prospect (given the age of one of the candidates and the inexperience of the other) that the next Vice President could one day be President, don’t you think voters have a need to know who Senators McCain and Obama think that person should be? Now we hear that another two or even three weeks may pass before we know their choices. The average American spends more time car shopping before a purchase and probably makes a better choice than how they will select the second most powerful person on earth.
It has been two months since the day when my running mate, Nevada businessman Wayne Allyn Root, was made known. The opportunity for voters to get to him, his record of accomplishment and his character has been considerable. Meanwhile, voters wait to see who Senator McCain can lure on to his losing bandwagon, and who “Citizen of the World” Obama will grudgingly name his crown prince.
The second news story was about the latest McCain and Obama campaign ads. Like virtually everything else they have said, they were in agreement. Early in the day McCain charged Obama with arrogance and Obama’s negative response was to say that McCain was running a negative campaign.
So, please, tell us something we don’t know! The bigger fact is that NEITHER campaign is talking about the important issues that affect the lives of Americans. Neither has a real plan that would result in lower energy costs. Neither is going to do anything about $4 a gallon gasoline, the inflation that looms ahead as well as the overall weakening of our economy. Neither has a short term - much less long term - solution to the problems of global terrorism and the combat that is killing American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The American voters don’t get a chance to learn about the issues and they will only have a few short days to get to know who might become the second most powerful person on earth.
Finally, while we may not know where Senator McCain stands on many issues, compliments of CNN, we do know that he stands in a pair of $500 Italian made designer shoes. How absurd is this? While I don’t pay $500 for my shoes, I have to think this is the biggest waste of news coverage ever. CNN spends more time talking about Senator McCain’s fashion than about my campaign!
As I try to bring these points to media and public attention, it is difficult. Perhaps because my campaign represents a threat to the status quo, there is a clear effort to block my access to the public through the media. If you agree that where we stand on the issues is more important than the shoes that John McCain stands in, then I ask you to do three things.
FIRST: Please use your influence to spread the word that voters deserve to know NOW who Senators McCain and Obama think the second most powerful man in the world should be in 2009. And while you are at it, maybe you could get across the point that the media should spend more time covering my campaign and less about the shoes, lapel pins and clothes my opponents wear. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, post a blog on the Internet or call in to a talk radio show. (Better yet, do all three!)
SECOND: [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. Please forward this email to friends and family across the nation. Your endorsement means more than 100 newspaper articles.
THIRD: This week the McCain and Obama campaigns spent more than a million dollars producing negative ads and buying TV commercial time to attack each other over which is the more arrogant candidate and which is the most negative. (For me, I think it was a tie.) Please consider a gift today to help us print brochures and mailers that we must get out to let people know where I stand on all of the many important issues of this campaign.
Your gift of $25 will pay for more than 400 brochures. $100 pays for 1,000 bumper stickers. $250 will pay our phone bills for a week so that volunteers in the headquarters can call voters.
Not one cent will be spent on shoes or personal attack ads. I promise.
Thanks for your consideration and support.
Sincerely,

Bob Barr