The Bob Barr Option

Bob Barr’s name will be on the ballot in all fifty states, come November. To say that Barr is a viable third party candidate is putting the situation mildly.

Ralph Nader was accused of ’spoiling’ John Kerry’s run for president in 2004. Nader was only on the ballot in 34 states.

I won’t argue that Barr has come near to either Barack Obama or John McCain’s numbers. But I think that his candidacy is already having a significant affect on this presidential campaign. The margin between Obama and McCain remains narrow enough that both candidates have to seriously consider the chance that Barr might have a Nader effect.

Conservatives who feel that McCain is too moderate like Barr — his voting record during his tenure as the representative from Georgia’s 7th congressional district makes that clear. He’s undergone something of a transformation to become the Libertarian Presidential candidate, but many of his actual stances remain the same. The real change is that Barr has come to the conclusion that issues like same-sex marriages should be a decision made at the state level, rather than the federal.

But because Barr believes that marriage is not a federal issue, quite a few Democrats feel comfortable with him as a candidate. There are more than a few Democrats who haven’t committed to Obama, from reasons as varied as his defeat of Clinton and his relative youth. I have a feeling that Barr could pick up a few of those votes as well.

The way that Barr is running his campaign is also worth a look. Obama has gotten a lot of praise for his use of social media, but Barr has committed himself to making connections through sites beyond the usual suspects (Facebook, MySpace, etc.). Despite having less ‘real world’ name recognition, Barr has hundreds of online friends even on Digg.

This race is close enough that I’m willing to bet that Obama and McCain’s staffs are keeping tabs on Barr, and I think the rest of us should do the same.

Thanks to Brian Layman for a head’s up on recent Barr developments.