A surprise visit by Bob Barr
July 19th, 2008 by Jason PyeThe Washington Post notes that Bob Barr made a surprise stop by the Netroots Nation 2008 conference in Austin, Texas:
A second surprise guest at Netroots Nation 2008 is generating hallway buzz: Bob Barr. Yep — that Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, civil liberties advocate and former Georgia Republican representative.
Barr is in town as the featured draw at tonight’s closing reception at the Right Online Summit of right-wing bloggers and online activists sponsored by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, also ongoing today in Austin.
A third-party political candidate, Barr’s visit to the hallways of Netroots Nation to mingle with progressive bloggers — he bought a ticket, just like any other attendee, says a convention source — shows him trying to try to reach out to folks on both sides of the aisle.
[UPDATE] The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times have picked up on Barr’s visit to Netroots Nation 2008. Here is what the WSJ has to say:
The former Georgia congressman turned Libertarian presidential candidate is in town for a fund-raiser for his third party presidential bid and decided to drop by the liberal blogger conference when his campaign manager informed him that more than 2,000 netroots activists were gathering in downtown Austin.
“There are a lot of libertarians here, a lot of supporters,” Barr said, when asked by Washington Wire about his visit. Conference organizers provided Barr and his son, who doubles as his campaign spokesman, Derek Barr, one day “temporary” access passes.
The WSJ also notes that Bob will be speaking on separation of powers before the House Judiciary Committee next Friday.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Digg the WSJ article! This was a great move by Bob to show up at an online activists conference.
http://digg.com/political_opinion/Surprise_Visit_by_Bob_Barr_at_Netroots_Conference
July 19th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Dear friend,
I urgently need your help.
I’m in Charleston, West Virginia attempting to get Bob Barr on the ballot. When I arrived early Wednesday morning, I didn’t think it would be possible, but I had to give it a shot.
We’re headed toward 48 state ballot access. Only West Virginia and Oklahoma are problems. However, there is hope in Oklahoma as we have just filed a lawsuit to get Bob Barr and Wayne Root on the ballot there.
If we win that case, only West Virginia will stand in our way of 50 state ballot access - an apex of achievement for a third-party candidate and something the media cannot ignore.
But here’s my problem.
There is no active Libertarian Party in West Virginia and a very limited pool of volunteers.
I have had to bring in out-of-state petitioners from across the nation to get this drive done.
So far I have 13 petitioners on the ground and another nine on their way.
I didn’t think we would have the manpower to get the drive done, but now I think it’s a possibility. I have enough petitioners in the state and on their way to collect enough signatures by our August 1st deadline.
But I won’t have the money to finish the drive if I don’t raise $43,000 by close of business on Monday.
Russ Verney, our campaign manager, wrote to me this morning and instructed me to shut down the drive if I cannot raise the funds by COB Monday.
So far this month, we’re raised less than $100,000. We’re even off pace from our June fundraising totals.
The campaign cannot afford this ballot drive as I write this. We would have to choose between basic campaign operations or the possibility of 50 state ballot access.
Russ has to make a tough call on this drive but he did give me 96 hours to raise the funds to continue the effort.
I ask that you keep this drive alive by helping me raise $43,000 by close of business on Monday.
Please make an emergency donation to fund the West Virginia ballot access drive right now. Please give generously by clicking here.
My friend, I’ve only been in this state for a few days and we need to be on the ballot here.
When I arrived in West Virginia it was 2:30 in the morning. I pulled into a hotel parking lot and a restaurant owner and one of her patrons were standing outside smoking a cigarette.
They didn’t look too happy.
As it turns out, just a few weeks earlier the county had banned smoking in all “enclosed workplaces” including bars and restaurants.
I’m not a smoker, but it’s the property owner’s decision to allow or disallow smoking on their premises - it is not a county bureaucrats’ decision.
When I explained libertarian philosophy to them and told them about our candidate Bob Barr, their eyes lit up.
They did not know that there is an alternative to the two-party system. They didn’t know that there is a party that respects an individual’s rights and personal decisions.
Since then, I’ve talked to many more folks in this state and the same holds true. We need to give West Virginians a better choice and the only way to do that is to get Bob Barr on the ballot.
Please donate today and help me keep this drive alive. I have two weeks left to pull it off and I sincerely need your support.
A gift of $50, $100, $250 or more would be a significant help. If you can’t give $50, give $5 or $10. Every dollar gets us one step closer to getting a pro-liberty candidate on the ballot in what could be our final ballot access hurdle.
Thank you for all that you do.
In Liberty,
Shane Cory
Deputy Campaign Manager
Bob Barr 2008
July 19th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Great article. I like the fact that he is willing to do drop in appearences and is willing to pay the admission just like everyone esle. That really shows he’s a man of the people and doesnt want to be treated like he’s above everyone. Kudos to Barr and keep up the surprice visits. Try getting a few of those here in the Detroit area.
July 19th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Dear Shane Cory,
In your request for donations post you said:
“Please make an emergency donation to fund the West Virginia ballot access drive right now. Please give generously by clicking here.”
But there is NO LINK on the word “here” so where do you want people to donate?
Thanks.
July 19th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
great Out of the Box thinking for the campaign. We need more like this to get the people to see Barr and get exposure to new voters and donors of most important at this point in the campaign
July 19th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Jim: at this website to the right of the campaign counter for donations is a box to click on for West Virgina ballot access donations.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Donate to get Barr on the West Virginia ballot. Time is running out fast!
https://www.bobbarr2008.com/donate/?sp=wv&c=wv
July 19th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I know we were suppose to raise $43,000 by Monday and I don’t think we’ll get there but G-d I don’t want the campaign to give up on West Virginia, guys please email everyone for a donation, concentrate on anybody that owes you a favor and it’s time to pay up !
July 19th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I agree with Jonathan. West Virginia is a critical state with important ramifications for Bob’s candidacy.
We need to get whatever contributions we can make to the campaign for the West Virginia effort. This is a good time to spend the next 24-48 hours telling others about Bob and asking for donations to get him on the ballot.
It’s a huge challenge , but I believe we are up to it! Bob is doing his part and we are there to back him up!
The campaign gave us a lot of tools this week/let’s use them to get this job done.
Where are the NASCAR fans for Bob Barr? We need you right now to help him!
July 19th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
The money totals are disappointing.
the LP needs membership that understands the importance of donating. Obama supporters are donating. They understand.
Republicans donate when they have a reason.
It seems the most parties have core supporters that realize money flow is quite important, and we do not have enough of these here. Successful parties have money donors, whether large money donors or thousands of small money donors…its part of the process.
If you didn’t donate, then you really aren’t contributing to the success of this campaign.
July 20th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/07/20/barr-appears-at-netroots-nation/
AOL covered it too. Again very smart move.
July 20th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
As a long time libertarian and a contributor to the Barr/Root campaign, I believe the lack of contributions is due to a lack of excitement among base voters.
Libertarians want our leaders and spokespeople to passionately advocate fundamental change - and we need to see more of this from the Barr/Root campaign.
Congressman Barr is one of this nation’s leading advocates of the idea that the rule of law should apply to everyone - including the President. On Friday, July 25th, he will testify before the House Judiciary Committee during its hearing on the “Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses.” This hearing is being convened in response to Representative Dennis Kucinich’s filing of an article of impeachment against President Bush.
Based on an interview Congressman Barr gave at the NetRoots conference (see http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-interview-with-bob-barr-by-dday-you.html), it appears that he won’t advocate impeachment at this hearing. This is NOT a position that will fire up this particular base voter or lead to a further opening of his wallet!
In the interview Barr steps back from advocating impeachment for reasons of political expediency, i.e. we’re already in the election cycle and this action will backfire on the Democrats. Of course, for us Libertarians, the welfare of the Democratic Party is not a major concern.
Regardless of whether impeachment is politically feasible, it is morally imperative. This President has committed numerous, well documented violations of the law. If allowed to stand unopposed, Bush’s abuses of executive power will become standard operating procedure for future Presidents.
When Representative Barr led the impeachment of Bill Clinton for far smaller crimes, he knew full well that the then-President would not be convicted in the Senate. I assume then that he went ahead with impeachment because it was the right thing to do for the country, and not because it was politically feasible.
So this Friday, I sincerely hope our standard bearer will make a full-throated call for impeachment - because it’s the right thing to do!
July 20th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
John: you are so right about the importance of donations in a political campaign. People need to be educated about the importance of giving and also asked to give not only by the campaign but by each one of us as well.
I was one of those people who for a long time never gave. I just assumed the campaign money came from big rich donors from somewhere and I guess from ‘magic fundraisers’ and I never thought of my small donations being important.
It’s only in the past few years that I’ve come to realize how very important my donations are when pooled with those of all the other Americans who care about our nation and what is happening and who believe we really can make a difference.
I’ve come to see my donations as an investment in my future and the future of my children and grandchildren.
I also came to realize that there can’t be just a one time donation from most of us. Over the next four months Bob needs our help over and over again.
He is up against candidates with formidable resources. (Obama raised 52 million in June and McCain, 22 million and that doesn’t count all the DNC and RNC money raised).
In the short term we each need to donate what we can as frequently as we can. For me, that will mean every two weeks when I get paid.
We also need to ask everyone we know to please donate to assure Bob will be on the ballot. I ask people who haven’t made up their mind to send something to help Bob get on the ballot so he will be there if it turns out he is their choice.
The campaign needs to keep specific needs in front of us such as with the e-mails sent about West Wirginia. That caused me to squeeze out another donation. The birthday contribution in Wayne’s honor was a good strategy.
We also have to grow the number of supporters NOW.
I noticed there were a little over 5000 donors so far to the campaign. If the campaign e-mailed each donor to bring in just one new supporter tomorrow and to ask that person to make a donation we’d double our donor base.
Although I’m sure there will be some big donors to Bob’s campaign and successful fundraisers, our success will be generating a real grassroots response day after day after day.
We can’t let up for one day finding a new supporter and a new donor.
The Obama campaign has become the master of the small donations.
While Hillary Clinton had major bundlers - Hillraisers - raising $100,000 or more for her, Obama had thousands of ‘baby bundlers’ pledging to raise $250 or 500 or 1000 for the campaign. These bundlers could set up a fundraising page at the campaign website where everything was handled for them and a thermometer was there keeping track of progress, and all the person had to do was to call everyone they knew to ask the people to go to the site and make a donation to Obama to help them meet their goal.
In addition Obama had all supporters sending whatever amount they could from $5.00 on up over and over again for over a year.
I’m sure our campaign will have a list of strategies soon that will help us to raise money for Bob. In the meantime, we just need to be as creative and generous as our means allow us.
Money rised now is critical because of the need for ballot access.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:02 am
Amen Marc,
As a contributor to the Barr campaign and a fund-raising organizer for the Barr campaign’s in the San Francisco Bay Area, it seems Libertarians are doing their part. Now it’s up to Barr to stop playing personal politics and do his part. To be useful he must put his experience, intellengence and credibility to work by shaking up the establishment. That’s what Libertarians do.
If he’s going to use personal assets for his own political purposes rather than advancing freedom for the Libertarians, then it will be hard to get excited. The LP is not big enough to make waves…but we are big enough to make some noise and that’s what we should do. Barr’s position here is tepid at best and not good politics for the Libertarian Party in my view.
I’ll get as excited as Barr gets in this campaign. Other Libertarians seem to feel the same way. Talking head time on television isn’t enough although its been one of the better things about the Barr campaign so far. Talking head time speaking well for the truth while defending correct but controversial positions would be really exciting. But the Barr campaign is just starting and we should be patient. Hopefully Barr is just taking a little time to find a “voice” that is right for him and the Party. While he goes through this process, I and others will remain cautiously optimistic.
Michael Denny
July 21st, 2008 at 2:07 am
I second Marc Joffe’s comment that “I believe the lack of contributions is due to a lack of excitement among base voters.”
I further agree that bold actions like calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush, and doing more high-profile outreach to the left in order to counter perceptions and fears that Barr and Root are really still conservatives, would help alleviate the problem.
Here in San Francisco we have a measure on the ballot to defund the enforcement of prostitution laws (see http://www.espu-ca.org). It would reduce government spending by an estimated $11.4 million a year, and thus is not just a socially tolerant, pro-civil-liberties measure, but a fiscally conservative one as well.
Will Barr and Root show that they are not just for “state’s rights,” but affirmatively support liberty at the local level, by endorsing this very libertarian initiative?
July 21st, 2008 at 9:12 am
Does Bush deserve to be impeached? I would agree yes.
Is this really what we want congress spending its time on when we have rapidly rising fuel prices? Not really.
They missed the bus on this, if they wanted to impeach him, they should have got it going a long time ago. We’ve got less than 6 months to put up with him with now. Also forgive my ignorance, but who becomes president if he is successfully impeached? **** Cheney? Nancy Pelosi? Heaven help us if either of them became president.
By the time any changed happened, it would be election time anyway. The right thing to do now is to just file the articles of impeachment and spend a few days with supporting evidence, then drop the issue, making full mention that its because we don’t have time to make an effective change.
Congress has wasted enough of its time, let’s not encourage them to waste even more of their time and more of our money.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am
I live in West Virginia and I personally volunteered to be an unpaid signature gatherer in my home county. On 7/15 I wrote an email to the campaign (mike@bobbarr2008.com) letting them know I wanted to help. This email was never answered. On 7/17 I wrote another email (this one to volunteer@bobbarr2008.com) and again this email was never answered. According to the article over at LP.org they need to send me the petition and credentials form before I could begin to collect signatures. What is going on? If we do not get ballot access in WV, it will not be because we did not give enough money, it will be because legitimate opportunities (supporters) were ignored. How many others volunteers might have been ignored this way?
July 21st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Morrison, the forms are available off this page on the LP site.
http://www.lp.org/blogs/andrew-davis/help-us-in-west-virginia
July 21st, 2008 at 6:35 pm
BJ: Thanks for your comment, but I am a bit worried about the question “Is this really what we want congress spending its time on when we have rapidly rising fuel prices?”
As a libertarian, I want Congress to do absolutely NOTHING about fuel prices. I prefer that these prices be set by private individuals and companies interacting voluntarily in the free market. If the price of gas becomes too high, I will purchase a more fuel efficient vehicle or reduce my driving. I won’t be asking Washington to spend more of our tax dollars on alternative fuel schemes like ethanol, which, as you may know, has touched off a damaging escalation in food prices.
With respect to who would replace Bush if he is convicted, I wouldn’t worry about this because Senate Republicans would undoubtedly block his conviction. The issue here is that Congress should be upholding the rule of law. This is a much higher purpose than wasting our tax dollars.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
If they’re not returning your e-mails regarding petitioning then they deserve to lose. However, if you need to get in contact with someone who can make things happen then call Bill Redpath (LNC Chairman) on his cell phone. The number is on the LP website at http://www.lp.org. Just click on the About Us tab and scroll down to Leadership.
He is known for Ballot Access stuff and will absolutely take care of this matter.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Bob, great to see you connecting to the left as well as the right. Thanks for running.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
A good friend of mine Marc Victor (http://attorneyforfreedom.com) had the opportunity to confront Barr at the Freedom Fest in Nevada recently about how he sold out on the Glen Beck show on the issue of drug legalization. Would someone here please explain to me how Barr could actually refer to himself as a Libertarian? I mean you can’t be a Libertarian and support the drug war, but to not defend the Libertarian position on this when given the opportunity seems traitorous at best.
I was actually shocked when I learned the Libertarian party nominated Barr in the first place. Let’s be honest people, Barr is no Libertarian. As a prosecutor this guy put people in cages for smoking pot. He chased Clinton around for getting a hummer (as if anyone should care) this does not sound like a Libertarian to me.
Can anyone here honestly compare Barr to Harry Brown or Ron Paul? The Libertarian party sold out big time with Barr. This guy is a joke and is as much a Libertarian as George Bush…. wake up people you have been had!
I am sure this post will be deleted, if it ever makes it on the board to begin with. For the record, I was not fooled Bob.
Mike Wasdin
http://mikewasdin.blogspot.com