Our amazing supporters continue to answer the call as we approach the Denver Convention. This money will be used to make a major showing and propel Bob to the nomination. Our team has been getting hundreds of requests for interviews from news channels, websites and blogs.
Below, some of our supporters are having a little fun balancing our fund raising numbers. 
Former Rep. Bob Barr says a number of Republicans have been trying to persuade him not to run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, but none has given him a convincing reason.The former Republican congressman from Georgia formed an exploratory committee last month and told The Washington Times he has since been subjected to the behind-the-scenes pressure from Republicans not to run.
Mr. Barr says even people who have tried to dissuade him understand why he thinks it important to raise issues from what he calls a “genuinely conservative” perspective and to offer alternatives to the positions of the two major-party candidates.
“In the month since we formed our exploratory committee, not a single Republican who has spoken with me to try and convince me not to seek the Libertarian nomination has disagreed with my reasons for considering a run,” Mr. Barr told The Times today in an e-mail exchange before leaving London on a flight to Atlanta.
Most Republicans who asked him not to run “also said they understand why I’d run and why John McCain is not conservative and will not seriously tackle the growth in government power and spending,” he said. “Some said they would vote for me if I ran, but for the sake of the Republican Party, they would prefer I didn’t.”
Mr. Barr will speak tomorrow at the National Press Club.
As Hillary Clinton clings to the almost mathematically impossible dream that she can be the Democratic nominee, it’s becoming increasingly clear that November’s general election match-up will pit Barack Obama against John McCain.
While Democrats worry that Ralph Nader could, yet again, take votes from their nominee, Republicans might also be concerned about former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, the front-runner to be Libertarian Party’s nominee. A real right-wing stalwart, could Barr play McCain’s spoiler?
Village Voice: The Libertarian Party is supportive of legalizing same-sex marriage, legalizing currently illegal drugs and keeping abortion legal. You were a sponsor of the “Defense of Marriage Act” and you had a 100 percent rating from the Christian Coalition when you served as a congressman. How do you square those positions with your current involvement in the Libertarian Party?
Bob Barr: Of course, many of the positions that I took in the Congress and that I take now are based on the principle of federalism, which is certainly a libertarian position. It used to be a position reflective of the Republican Party but obviously is not longer a part of the Republican platform. So, for example, regarding the “Defense of Marriage Act,” the fundamental, operative provisions of the “Defense of Marriage Act” say that each state makes up its own mind. I think that’s a fundamentally sound, libertarian-oriented position on federalism. With regard to drug usage similarly, these are issues in my view that ought to be left up to the states, based on the principles of federalism.
With regard to the Christian Coalition I have no idea what my positions, how they would rank them or not. But one thing that I have done, and I’ve explained this on a number of occasions to libertarian groups and other groups, and that is that since 9/11 the threat to our liberty and our basic right to privacy has become so pronounced that it truly has caused me to go back and take a look at the degree to which in previous years I was willing to accept, perhaps, a great deal more government control in certain areas because we did have a sort of residual of freedom and liberty in other areas. That no longer is the case. We have an administration in Washington that claims the power to inquire into virtually every aspect of our lives without court order. Where you have an administration that believes it does not have to abide by the law, where you have an administration that believes that the most fundamental provisions of our Constitution and our Bill of Rights have to give way to executive branch power, clearly something has changed. And that has caused me to go back and really take a long, hard look at some areas where I was willing previously to give the government the benefit of the doubt and conclude that we can no longer afford to do that because there is so little freedom left. We have to hang out every incremental piece that we can and start rolling back the government intrusions in a number of different areas.
VV: So, if different states legalized drugs, or legalized same-sex marriage, it wouldn’t be a problem for you, just so long as it was not at a federal level?
BB: Yes. I believe that those are precisely the type of issues that ought to be up to the voters of the states. There may very well be some aspects of those laws that do bring them within certain aspects of federal jurisdiction, but fundamentally those are states rights issues.
VV: Going back to privacy issues, what is your take on the “Telecom Immunity Bill?”
BB: I see no reason to grant a category of commercial enterprises in this country immunity for violating the law. I think it is a slippery slope and a very dangerous precedent that the government would set by doing that. And it’s unnecessary. If a company receives a directive or a request from an administration that it believes may very well violate a federal law then they have an obligation to tell that to the government and to refuse to violate the law. If they choose, voluntarily, to violate the law as some bureaucrat has told them, then they need to suffer the consequences. They should not be granted retroactive immunity.
VV: Your campaign recently sent out a press release highlighting a seven percent showing in a poll your own campaign commissioned. Have you been getting complaints from some of your former Republican allies that you could hurt John McCain in November?
BB: There have been some. I’ve heard from some Republicans to that effect. I would not enter this race for president to be a spoiler or to take votes from McCain anymore than I presume that his goal would not be to take votes from me. That may happen, on either side of the equation. It may just as well happen if I were to enter the race that I would take votes from whoever the Democrat nominee is, based on my civil liberties positions and the right to privacy. This notion that seems to prevail among the two major parties in recent election cycles, including this one, that somebody that gets in on your side of the ideological spectrum should not do so because it might draw votes from you I think is on one hand terribly arrogant. Neither of the two major parties has a right to exclusivity on the ballot. And I’m not sure its valid at all. The votes that I suspect I would garner if I got into the race would more likely than not be voters that had no intention of voting for Senator McCain anyway.
Read the rest of the article here.
Bob explains his positions on a myriad of topics as well as answering phone calls from viewers.
Atlanta, GA - In a speech at Mercer University yesterday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was dismissive of Rep. Bob Barr’s efforts to seek the Libertarian nomination. He also mischaracterized the nature of Ross Perot’s 1992 campaign. In response, Russ Verney, the former campaign manager for Ross Perot who is advising the Bob Barr 2008 campaign, issued the following statement:
The attraction of Ross Perot’s candidacy in 1992 was that he was not a part of the Washington establishment. Public sentiment was strong for a ‘change from politics as usual’. In the 2008 presidential campaign the buzz word from each candidate is ‘change’. But, the eventual Republican and Democratic nominees are not credible agents to change the Washington establishment each candidate has benefited from.
The public clearly wants ‘change’. According to recent poll data, Congress’ approval rating hovers around the miserably low 20 percentile; the President isn’t faring much better with the public, his approval rating is around 30%. In the April 3, 2008 CBS/New York Times poll 81% of the public thinks our country is headed in the wrong direction.
Change, meaningful change, from politics as usual can only come from outside the two political party system. Otherwise, a Republican President has to be stymied by the Democrats in Congress and a Democratic President has to be stymied by the Republicans in Congress. A third party President is free to build different coalitions to support each policy proposal from both the Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
In 1992 Ross Perot received almost 20% of the vote when just 34% could have won the election. Additionally, exit polling conducted by the news media asked voters leaving the polls who they voted for. Voters who responded Perot were then asked, “If Perot wasn’t in the race who would you have voted for?” The result of that question is that Bill Clinton would have won if Ross Perot was not in the race on election day. Ross Perot was not a spoiler, he was a contestant.
However, the voters who responded to the exit pollster that they voted for Bush (41) and Clinton were asked a follow-up question, “If you thought Perot could win, would you have voted for him?” The analysis of the responses to that question is that Perot would have won the 1992 election if the voters thought he could win: To the voters Perot was the preferred candidate not the spoiler.
In the 2008 election which will focus on the economy, the war in Iraq and runaway government spending, there is presently just a choice of which Washington insider moves to a different chair.
I urge Bob Barr to run for President and give the voters a real choice between ‘politics as usual’ and real ‘change’.
Bob Barr already reaching web milestones prior to his official announcement.
Atlanta, GA, Wednesday, April 8, 2008 – If “YouTube” subscribers are any indication of popularity, Mr. Bob Barr, is quickly rising. The former congressman announced last week the creation of a Presidential Exploratory committee - today Mr. Barr’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/bobbarr2008) indicated that he was #67 on the Most Subscribed for the first week after the announcement.
While normally this information may not be press worthy, many are watching the Barr Campaign very closely for any indication of web success on the level experienced by Ron Paul – the Texas Congressman seeking the Republican nomination for President. Ron Paul’s early success on YouTube and other socially driven sites such as Meetup & Digg.com translated into incredible online success – raising over $35 million dollars through his online campaign. Terra Eclipse, the company responsible for the Ron Paul 2008 website is also the team developing the Bob Barr 2008 campaign site. Considering their nearly identical stance on a myriad of issues, there seems to be great potential for a 3rd party effort this cycle.
Martin Avila, CEO of Terra Eclipse stated, “We can attribute Bob’s online success at this point to his devoted fans and early Ron Paul converts who are starting to give the Libertarian Party another look as a long term solution. I think for many of us Bob is a very natural progression towards a more mainstream, powerful and effective Liberty movement. The other candidates in the field simply do not value our individual liberties, private property, or family autonomy even close to as much as Bob Barr or Ron Paul.”
Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA for nearly eight years.
Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and actively advocating American citizens’ right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. He serves also as a board member for the National Rifle Association, and works with the American Conservative Union and other groups.
Contact: press@bobbarr2008.com
Press Contact: Audrey Mullen: 703.548.1160
Tech Contact: Martin Avila: 831.607.4521 x 11
Paid for by the Bob Barr 2008 Presidential Exploratory Committee
