Why You Should Vote For Bob Barr

[Herb Schaffler]

October 20th, 2008 by Jason Pye
Over at [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. (one of the best in the blogosphere), Doug Mataconis explains [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. and why you should to the same:

After eight years of a Republican President who has engaged in a reckless and irresponsible war, and expanded the size, scope, and power of the Federal Government at a greater rate than any President since Lyndon Johnson, I’ve come to realize that compromising your principles in the voting both is, ultimately, just a path that will lead you to regret what you’ve done.
Back in February, I crossed party lines and voted for Barack Obama in the Virginia Democratic Primary, but [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. :
[…]
Defeating Hillary Clinton was, I thought then and still think today, essential to even taking the baby steps necessary to move America beyond the divisive politics that has been infecting the political system for the past twenty-odd years. If my vote for Barack Obama on February 12th helped make that happen even in the smallest degree, it was worth it.
I also noted in February:

Does this mean I would vote for Obama in November if he’s the nominee ? No, and, frankly I probably wouldn’t.

Given Obama’s positions on a variety of issues, that answer today is an emphatic no. Whether it’s the economy, education, health care, taxes, or a whole other variety of issues that face America today, it’s clear to me that Obama believes in more government, not less. He suffers from the same fatal conceit that all liberal Democrats do — the idea that they can use the power of the state to remake the world in their own image.
On the issues, John McCain isn’t much better. The difference is that McCain campaigns on rhetoric that makes you think that he believes in individual liberty, self-reliance, and small government. The reality of a hypothetical McCain Administration, though, is demonstrated quite clearly in his response to the financial crisis, his support of the bailout, and his insane idea to have the government buy-up and renegotiate distressed mortgages. These are not the policy proposals of a man who believes in the free market.
Moreover, McCain has run his campaign in a manner that is at the very least offensive and borders on an insult to the intelligence of the American voter. He selected as his Vice-Presidential running mate [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . He engaged in the pointless, some might even say reckless, stunt of [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . And, most recently, he engaged in nearly two weeks of relentlessly negative campaigning that concentrated not on the issues facing the country, but on [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. and, in the process, [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. .
I said a long time ago that [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. based solely on his manifest disdain for one of the fundamental freedoms in the Constitution. Now I can say that, even if he had never sponsored McCain-Feingold, his conduct during the course of this election has demonstrated to me that he is unfit to be President of the United States.
That’s why, this year, I am voting for Bob Barr for President of the United States.
Unlike any other candidate running for President this year, Bob Barr stand unequivocally in favor of the principles of individual liberty and limited government that stand at the core of America’s founding documents. He’s the only candidate [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . He’s the only candidate who has made [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . He’s one of the few politicians I’ve ever seen [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . He’s spoken out on [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , taken a clear and consistent position on [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , called for [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , and called for [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . More recently, he has been the only candidate to speak out against government bailouts of private companies — whether its [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. or [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. .
Most importantly of all, though, Bob Barr is the only candidate running for President [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . They are ideas that have worked in the past, but they’ve been abandoned by both major political parties.
It’s time to return to the America that was meant to be. It’s time to vote for Bob Barr.

The case for Bob Barr doesn’t more precise, to this point and honest than that, my friends. There is nothing extraordinary or new about the status quo. If we don’t send Washington a message we can expect four more years of bailouts, bigger government and more attacks on the Constitution.