I see Chuck Baldwin as a good candidate. He is going to increase the standing of the Constitution Party. Also, as John McCain continues to alienate the social conservatives within the Republican Party, I see them drift off. The Constitution Party is a fit for them. Considering the fact that the party relies upon religious principles, this part of the Republican Party might stick with the Constitution Party, and Chuck Baldwin is the guy to attract them. And all that is in addition to the base that already exists. I see Ron Paul voters split between Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr.
It's a good year for the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party.
This is what I am looking at too.
Chuck Baldwin should be an easy "sell" to anyone who called or thinks of themselves as a conservative Republican (especially anyone NOT in love with Bush/McCain):
- As a conservative and former pastor, he gains almost instant credibility (and at least a "hearing") with them on social issues.
- Credibility which he can and WILL then USE to educate them AGAINST both "federalizing religion" AND against the dangers of "RELIGIOCRACY" (including trying to "legislate morality")
- Along the way he can get them to realize how the GOP has "duped" them and used with the whole abortion/conservative-judges thing...
- And can CREDIBLY bring them BACK to the Christian "Just-War" concept and the MORAL responsibility regarding non-torture, etc. -- and AWAY from the whole fear-mongering Islamo-hatefest.
- PLUS start making them think about REAL REPUBLIC-an principles of small, limited government again...
- Promote home-schooling and self-reliance...
- And maybe bring them whole-hog into the RP way of seeing the current government/economy cartel, and how the Fed & fiat money are abused by the "corporatist government" is an almost fascist manner to generate wars, violate rights, control the population, etc.
- ...Including all the way to getting RID of the IRS (and replacing it with NOTHING).
By contrast, with BARR -- if anti-McCain "former-Republican" voters can even see beyond the "LIBERTARIAN" label (= "gay, drug-addicted, hippie, anarchist" & most won't/can't see past that
caricature, so why try to force it?) ... and for all the work THAT would involve, all they are going to get is:
- A McCain-minus candidate (as far as personal character goes -- his hypocrisy makes McCain look like a saint -- McCain divorced & married twice; Barr divorced twice and married THRICE + the "coerced" abortion, etc). How does selling a "reprobate" and "hypocrite" as if he is now (somehow) a man of character help then Constitutional cause?
- The questionable impeachment of Clinton, (they may LIKE him because of that, but where does it take you, really? Democrat & Clinton-hatred? How does that help the Constitutional cause?).
- A really-CONFUSED mixed-bag on the drug war (is Barr for it or against it? When was he which? And why the flip-flop? Legalize Marijuana? Why? For some wacko-libertarian reason? Again, how does THIS help the Constitutional cause?)
- ANOTHER confused mixed-bag on social issues (so I thought Libertarians were all for Gay rights -- but didn't this guy WRITE the DOMA? And what's this about him working with the ACLU? Does this guy stand firm on ANYTHING? How does ANY of this help the Constitutional cause?)
- A full-blown advocate of the falsely called "Fair Tax" and its fallacious promise of ending the IRS (only to be replaced by something MORE insidious and MORE invasive of homes and families and creating HIGHER dependence upon and subjectivity to the Federal government). Which only confuses the issue of taxes, and does NOTHING about reducing government spending, size, or intrusiveness... indeed it would be a windfall for the rich!
- No one REALLY seems to know where the heck Barr even currently "stands" (waffles?) on the Islamo-hatefest and fear-mongering stuff. And if you don't know this... then you are NOT helping the cause!
- In short -- I think Barr is going to be impossible to "sell" to anyone OUTSIDE of the LP... and they are going to spend a LOT of time TRYING to sell him WITHIN the LP ranks (once they find out the guy's history -- most will NOT buy, or will feel cheated by the LNC... and will disappear from politics).
Truth is, even were I a died-in-the-wool BIG-"L" Libertarian party man ...I would find it impossible to "sell" Bob Barr without having to leave the room and vomit every 5 or 10 minutes, plus start taking prescription meds to sleep at night... no thanks!
I think what the "pro-Barr" people here are forgetting is that Barr "won" the Libertarian National Convention -- sorta of a
coup d'etat -- but all he really did was succeed in "suckering" a few hundred party leaders (< 400 people total) -- but the rank-and-file people, the small "l" libertarians are NOT likely to follow, because they didn't get "wined and dined" in the same way (and the loss of the rank-and-file will doom the LP to the history bin of former 3rd parties).
But... with Chuck Baldwin and the Constitution Party, if we can rally a significant % of the remaining (saner) RP supporters -- and most especially those WITHIN the GOP -- we may be able to quietly "spread" the message about the CONSTITUTION via someone even MORE acceptable (to typical "conservative former-Republican voters") than Ron Paul was... at least to those who can NOT stand McCain (which is a larger number than most people are aware).
End result will be GOOD for the short-term (some votes for Chuck & visibility for the CP) -- and GOOD for the long-term, by rebuilding support for the CONSTITUTION within GOP circles.
Chuck Baldwin is a WIN-WIN for the movement.
And pretty soon (working on it) the "ManOfCommonSense" will be behind Baldwin as well... hopefully that will help a bit.
