Bob Barr

I greeted the news that Bob Barr was forming a presidential exploratory committee with both a bit of glee and skepticism.

One the one hand, the corrupt two party system needs some shaking up. The GOP in particular needs to be rejected for violating virtually all of its alleged principles during the Bush administration.

On the other hand, the Libertarian Party has rarely demonstrated even the tiniest amount of common sense. Given that many on the right are really unhappy with McCain, Congressman Barr would almost certainly have the best showing of any LP presidential candidate in its history. In spite of this, my bet is that the LP will reject Barr and nominate one its long-time stalwarts, because Barr isn't a pure enough libertarian.

Barr has the potential to really shake things up and show the GOP that they can’t take advantage of their base any longer, but alas the LP party faithful probably aren't smart enough to let him do it.

I sure hope that I’m wrong. In the meantime, perhaps Barr should hedge his bets a bit and have a chat with Howard Phillips over at the Constitution Party.