What’s Missing from the Barr Juggernaut?
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From Marc Ambinder via Matt Lewis comes a Russ Verney strategy memo from the nascent Bob Barr presidential campaign. Methinks ol’ Russ missed a few critical elements in here. See if you can find them:
These days, politics seems to revolve around polling and predictions. I’m not convinced it’s the best use of anyone’s time — especially for someone like me who’s spent his whole life in full-time campaign activities — but consider this outline :
early October: 7% in national surveys
Mid October: wins televised Presidential debate
late October: 12% in national surveys
election day: captures 19% of national voteThat’s what happened in a previous election I was involved with: Ross Perot in 1992. That could have been the case with Ron Paul if he had opted to run on a third party ticket.
And it could happen to Bob Barr, too! Except….
Barr won’t have Perot’s bottomless wallet to purchase blocks of airtime on CNN and elsewhere. Nor has Barr followed the Perot model of presidential campaigning (poll really well, jump into the race, become a genuine threat, then quit, then get back in again).
And without an Admiral Stockdale at his side, Barr is nothing (is Russell Means still available?).
And then there’s the small matter of Barr still having to win the Libertarian presidential nomination. And guess what? That’s not a gimme. Of course, that bit part in Borat can’t hurt with the LP, even though it’s done nothing for Alan Keyes and whichever party’s nomination he’s chasing this week.
I love reading memos like these — so full of hope and possibility. And hype (Doug Bandow ought to know better than to gush like that in print). They have everything an expectant candidate could want. Except the realistic possibility of winning.
A more realistic goal would be for the LP to eclipse the 1 percent of the popular vote Ed Clark won in the 1980 campaign — a record that still stands.
I totally agree that Barr is not even worthy of this sentence. It is funny that a WaPo editorialist wrote a fantasy that Barr would be “McCain’s Ralph Nader.”
Barr will likely not even make it on every state ballot. More significant is that most of the Ron Paul supporters are now wearing McCain pins and are supporting the John McCain, since he won the nomination, fair and square. The Paulistinians, are not, as the Washington Post fantasizes, bolting from the Republican ranks, but they are instead staying within the GOP.
It will be a very smart move for the National GOP to ensure that Ron Paul is given plenty of time to speak at the Convention. Ron Paul has attracted millions of new voters to the Republican ranks and the “old guard” should recognize his achievement and thank Ron Paul and his supporters at the National Convention.