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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Ron Paul vs. Bob Barr: Libertarian Party does some damage control
First, we had the Ron Paul press conference.
Then the national field director of the Barr campaign said Ron Paul is just in it for the money.
Then I get a press release that says the Barr campaign is asking Ron Paul to join the ticket.
Following that, I looked around the blogs and saw that the Paulistas are furious with the Barr campaign, and Paul folk were expressing their disgust with the LP and with Bob Barr in spades. Knowing how motivated Paulistas can be when they feel slighted, I sort of figured the LP office would get hundreds, if not thousands, of phone calls today.
I guess they did. About two minutes ago, the LP released the following press release, trying desperately to quell the flames that threaten to become a bonfire:
"I have been hearing a lot from many LP Members about concerns over Bob Barr not attending Ron Paul's press conference.
However, before you form an opinion, perhaps you may want to consider the facts and not rely on blogs for your news.
First, the Barr campaign met with Ron Paul's staffers yesterday afternoon to deliver the offer of the LP's VP slot to Ron Paul and to discuss the details of the event that Bob Barr was invited to attend. More details were to be submitted to the Barr campaign but did not arrive until nearly 3 a.m. the morning of the event. At 9 a.m. Barr's campaign manager, Russell Verney, informed the Paul campaign that Bob would not be attending however he would still give his backing of the four principles highlighted by Dr. Paul.
Second, read the press release by the Barr Campaign you will see why Bob's own press conference (attended by many members of the press) was so significant: http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/bob-barr-shows-leadership-to-unify-liberty-movement
Third, as CNN and others reported, Ron Paul's press conference was more about him not endorsing McCain and less about Dr. Paul's non-sanctioning of other candidates running for president.
The Barr campaign chose not to attend in order to make a very valid point, which was expressed, in their following press conference. Bold leadership is needed right now! Scattering support for the liberty agenda to the four winds as Dr. Paul is proposing will not serve liberty.
Ron Paul deserves respect and credit for what he has done over the last year in rejuvenating so many people across this nation; however, either he or possibly his staff has made the bland decision to remain ambiguous with their intent and direction for liberty.
Personally, I will say that I do not appreciate the treatment that LP personnel received today by Ron Paul's staff and the games they have attempted to play over the past year. This morning, our volunteer coordinator was rudely ejected from the press conference before it even started. This was followed by Ron Paul staffers and supporters close to the staff disrupting Barr's press conference.
This pattern is something that we never wanted to disclose but holds true to previous treatment where staff members for Paul's campaign tried on more than one occasion to have Bob Barr uninvited from events, including Bob's gracious introduction of Ron Paul at last year's CPAC conference.
I do doubt that Dr. Paul was aware of these antics.
I hope this answers some of your concerns and questions. Our staff, volunteers and the Barr/Root campaign are totally psyched up and ready to work very hard for all Libertarians through November and beyond – including ballot access, in as many states as possible, which will benefit all Libertarian Candidates!...
In Liberty!
Robert Kraus
Acting Executive Director"
Posted by P.M. Jaworski on September 10, 2008 in International Politics | Permalink
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Comments
Yeah!!! A pissing contest.
Posted by: tj | 2008-09-10 5:24:33 PM
This would be funny if it weren't so sad. This statement is only adding fuel to the fire and the LP is too obtuse to realize that they have neither the numbers, the money, nor the commitment to win a pissing match with Ron Paul's supporters. It's very, very obvious that the Libertarian Party house needs a serious house cleaning, starting with the sad case who wrote this press release. What a tragic waste of opportunity.
Posted by: Tharms | 2008-09-10 5:45:12 PM
I was actaully going to start campaigning for Barr and blogging however now I will be doing everything I can to expose Barr for the slime he is. I will also be voting for Baldwin now
Posted by: heath | 2008-09-10 5:54:13 PM
It's ridiculous. Ron Paul was making a beautiful gesture today and the Barr campaign spit on it. Watch the video and then look at the coverage on UnitedLiberty.org
http://www.unitedliberty.org/
Posted by: Fred | 2008-09-10 5:54:20 PM
dumb day for Barr... he should have been at RP press conference
Posted by: Mike Robinson | 2008-09-10 6:52:09 PM
Ron Paul's, "in it for the money" ? You have got to be kidding me! That is the most assinine comment I've heard today. I think an apology to Dr. Paul is in order from this un-named Field Director.
I'd like to see Ron Paul throw his hat in with any other candidate. I'd love to upset the whole status quo! I will not resort to infighting within any of the 3rd parties, the neocons and Dems would love that. Cool heads must prevail!
Step back and take a breath folks. We all can still make one helluva statement to the establishment without fighting between ourselves! No I don't agree with some of the other 3rd party candidates, but I do KNOW that I want to see the Dems and neocons disrupted to the point that they MUST address our other issues. We ALL have a common enemy - the neocons and Dems. Let's all be cool and keep that in mind.
We are the rational and reasonable folks. let's act like it.
Thanks and stay in the fight, we need each and everyone of you!
Posted by: Michael | 2008-09-10 7:35:02 PM
The LP has been walking a tightrope for many months. They picked Barr, who has a lot of voting baggage (Patriot Act, War votes, etc.), and they have been avoiding (let's just say, ignoring) Ron Paul in many ways. I base this on emails I get from the LP, comments from the LP, and some other research I've done. I'm not totally dissing the LP or Barr--anything's better than the two majors. For those that aren't aware, there are many disagreements between the Washington-based, war-tolerant LP and the grass roots libertarians. I would bet that the LP, in conjunction with Barr, did not want to be too far afield of the mainstream today by associating with the rabble-rousers. Bad move, I think, and as indicated on the Net, the blowback is going to be incessant.
We are not going to get a satisfactory electoral process in the U.S. until people stop trying to "game the system" by picking the lesser of two evils. I find a similar model for making these kinds of decisions almost nonexistent in the rest of life (eating, vacationing, car-buying, etc.); yet, we do it with politics. The "system" is "rigged" from the beginning by the pre-selection of the billion-dollar man (or a very limited field of candidates who inevitably rise to the top); the only thing that ordinary people can hope to do is diminish the duopoly's influence by watering down the huge election take of the majors. If 50% of the nonvoters would get off their asses, we might have a chance.
Posted by: Scott Harmon | 2008-09-10 8:16:11 PM
Well, this has sealed the deal for me. I'm going with Chuck Baldwin. Yes it will never work unless the 2 biggest 3rd parties work together. Hard, yes. Impossible, no. Let's hope we can make some REAL changes.
Posted by: Mason Caste | 2008-09-10 8:53:03 PM
This is ridiculous! Believe it or not the LP, CP, GP and Nader have the most IMPORTANT ISSUES in common! I've been a Libertarian my entire adult life, but I won't vote for Barr especially now. I'd rather vote for NADER, in fact he has my vote now more than any other candidate. The LP needs to get their fucking act together. A "VOTE THIRD PARTY" campaign makes the most sense right now than anything since the Ron Paul campaign a year ago.
Ron, I'm on board with this one!
Posted by: Richard | 2008-09-10 9:36:21 PM
I'm not going to get all excited by this stuff. I will be voting for Bob Barr. Barr's stand on the issues is the same as yesterday, still not perfect but that's Bob Barr. Actually, I'm for a Baldwin/Barr ticket or Barr/Baldwin ticket. Please ignore this petty stuff between the staff. It's just irrelevant.
Posted by: Andrew Panken | 2008-09-10 9:45:11 PM
Nader is a hard left socialist communist collectivist with much in common with the McBama's. For a true Libertarian to vote for Nader over this petty argument, is just ridiculous.
Posted by: Andrew Panken | 2008-09-10 9:48:42 PM
Somehow, I doubt that Ron Paul or Bob Barr are going to lose much sleep over this. The whole thing is being blown up into some gigantic event.
Posted by: Andrew Panken | 2008-09-10 9:50:42 PM
I've been pondering Ron Paul's republican run, and the mass confusion it has caused in the liberty movement, the whole campaign season.
The problem here, all you Ron Paul supporters fail to realize, even in this very comment section, you seem to fail to realize is Bob Barr loses nothing by his actions today.
The LP loses nothing.
Only in your head did we have something that we just lost.
The LP is a small party, but its still a political party. It relies on donations, volunteers...none of which the Ron Paul movement was able to ever provide.
You know we express respect for Ron Paul, he was our candidate in 1988, I love his votes in Congress.
But I could also go tell you to p@#$@ off, simply because one thing you cannot say about Ron Paul, is that his help is worth one iota.
Its been worthless....you say you are withdrawing something, you are withdrawing absolutely nothing.
Posted by: Robert | 2008-09-10 11:40:39 PM
by the way, the only way to defeat the two party system, is not to be part of the problem, as Ron Paul is, but to be part of the solution, as Bob Barr is.
I don't plan to convince anyone today...thats not my goal. But every time the LP membership increases in size, it gets closer to the size it needs to be, to be a powerful force.
The whole Ron Paul movement is hazy. It doesn't deliver votes to non-republican candidates, it doesn't deliver money to non-republican candidates, it doesn't build a non-republican political party.
It seems to be sort of about fighting for liberty inside the republican party, or maybe scattering support to the four winds of minor party candidates.
One thing I do know, is not all parties are the same. Libertarians is a philosophy based party that is not the same as these other parties, and Ron Paul well knows that.
Posted by: Robert | 2008-09-10 11:46:08 PM
FRUITION.
nader paul kucinich gravel
mckinney ventura
perot charts
rage
Right now it's time to;
Right now it's time to;
Kick out the jams "Brothers & Sisters"
Posted by: nader paul kucinich gravel | 2008-09-11 4:13:26 AM
The only thing ridiculous about this furor is how the Paulistas are too obtuse to see how Paul is diluting the Liberty movement. Instead of concentrating efforts on Liberty issues and candidates, Paul is de-focusing our attention AWAY from people like Barr and Baldwin who are actually running and won't abandon the race like Paul did.
Posted by: Lojiko | 2008-09-11 7:42:22 AM
The LP DID, in fact, lose something by its shabby treatment of Ron Paul; it lost votes. I suspect I was not the only one planning to hold my nose and vote for Barr, but after this incident, I won't. I had questions about Barr, anyway. Judging from his past voting record, I suspect he's the neocon "annointed" candidate for the LP, just as McCain is for the Republican Party and Clinton (now Obama) was for the Democratic. Just another way to gurantee they don't lose, no matter who wins the election. My vote will go to none of the above.
Posted by: Dena | 2008-09-11 9:36:03 AM
Dena,
Lets take this conversation down to real numbers. In 2004, Nader 0.4% of the vote for president, the LP 0.3%, the Green Party 0.1%, the Constitution 0.1%
The combined total of all 3rd parties, including independents was less than 1% of the vote.
Even if Barr gets 450,000 votes this year, and would have gotten 470,000 if he didn't miss this conference....and thats a real stretch to even think it will impact that much, even if it does, that is essentially no difference.
What you call "shabby treatment" what doyou mean, when he was offered the v.p. slot so he could be on the ballot, or do you mean missing one press conference?
There is about to be some shabby treatment.
A whole lot more.
negative campaigning works. When Paul was making record numbers in the repub. primaries, they came out with his racist newsletters, and his ability to raise money plumetted.
After McCain got the nomination, his support and donation went down yet again.
Now, that he's fractured the liberty movement,
I'm finally free to admit, this man is an egoist, a looney tunes, and nut case.
The shine will be off Ron Paul very soon. Ross Perot never recovered from his debate with Al Gore.
Ron Pauls supporters are kind of like you when you were supporting Barr....one press conference missed, one article negative, one suggestion this man isn't exactly what they hoped, and they will fly like the wind.
That the problem with a movement centered around a man, instead of a party of people, joined together on a common goal.
Posted by: John | 2008-09-11 10:10:59 PM
I have to admit it. I'm disappointed in Paul, and I donated thousands to his campaign.
Posted by: JC | 2008-09-11 10:23:41 PM
But the movement is not about him, and he has proven it by not running third-party, but by fighting to break the SYSTEM which is unfair. We knew we wouldn't run for president, he has always said it. It's moronic to get all angry because he didn't do what he SAID he wouldn't do.
Barr, however wants it all. He wants none of the work building up the grassroots movement, and wants to take 'leadership' of the liberty movement which has simply NOTHING to do with the 'one mighty leader to take us to the promised land', that is the idea we're fighting. He's one of them at heart. Actually this little faux pas explains much of his previous voting record and flakiness and weak principles.
The man doesn't have the steadiness to stand on principle and not sway one side or the other as the necessity of the moment dictates.
Posted by: Marco | 2008-09-12 1:04:06 PM
Ron Paul behaves like a fascist: http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2008/08/ron-paul-is-fascist.html
Posted by: hornshiver | 2008-09-21 1:11:09 PM
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