As one might have expected, Libertarian Bob Barr’s appeal to a greater-than-normal percentage of the vote for the LP depends on an appeal to disaffected Republican small-government conservatives. Barr made that appeal explicit yesterday, as recounted in an AP story entitled, “Libertarian Barr Says McCain Can’t Win Presidency.”
Here’s Barr’s pitch:
“Sen. McCain will be spending the last two weeks before the election on his ‘farewell tour’ across America,” Barr wrote in an e-mail message. “Sen. McCain’s mixed and angry message, as well as his support of big-spending policies, have killed any chance McCain may have had to win this election.”
The former Republican congressman from Georgia wrote that conservatives who want their vote to count should throw their support behind his longshot candidacy.
“A vote for John McCain is a wasted vote,” Barr said, but a vote for him would be viewed as a protest of big spending policies of McCain and President Bush, particularly their support for the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.
“Now, principled conservatives can vote their conscience instead of voting for a faux-conservative just because he carries the Republican label,” Barr wrote.
Will Barr’s appeal attract more voters to the LP? I think if McCain seems a lost case, in the last few days or week, Barr might have a real opportunity to double the historical level of LP support. (I know that some see McCain’s candidacy that way now; he’s still fighting against that perception.)
He would have had a chance for more if he had come close — as he has not — to the LP goal of twenty million for the campaign.