That may be the next drink I try at Starbucks. The inspiration? Bob Barr. Just finished reading a relatively fair article on former Congressman Barr from the L.A. Times. Have a quick read...
The biggest problem I see with this article and just about everything else I read or hear about his campaign is the portrayal of him as a spoiler to John McCain. The data in this Zogby poll is not straightforward, but with some basic assumptions and sensitivity analysis one can see that Barr polls as well with Democrats as he does with Republicans. I created a quick spreadsheet with some untested assumptions to bear this out (I've since deleted it). Further, this comprehensive poll from a district in North Carolina has Barr polling better with Democrats than with Republicans despite other Libertarian candidates polling much better with Republicans! What does that tell me? The Republicans are giving in to the media and leaning towards McCain so that they don't "waste their vote". (Dare I say the media is dosing out some soma!?) Now, I'm the first to admit that we can't take the results from one very specific poll and draw sweeping conclusions. But, I am suggesting that Bob Barr's appeal - and the Libertarian Party appeal - crosses the traditional two-party line far more than we'd think. As an interesting aside, Barr actually out-polls McCain amongst blacks in this district. That's kind of funny.
I'm not going to use this entry to formally endorse a candidate for what that's worth. I'm leaning towards Barr, but he and I have some unfinished business... We'll save that for another time.
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