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What About Bob?

I watched the presidential debate at Reason‘s HQ, where Libertarian Bob Barr responded in real time to the major candidates’ answers. I was afraid the event would be Barr shouting at a television, but the whole thing came off surprisingly well — the candidate would just motion to an aide to mute the volume when […]

I watched the presidential debate at Reason‘s HQ, where Libertarian Bob Barr responded in real time to the major candidates’ answers. I was afraid the event would be Barr shouting at a television, but the whole thing came off surprisingly well — the candidate would just motion to an aide to mute the volume when he wanted to make a comment. And most of his comments were cogent. Some were quite humorous, as when he said, deadpan, in response to McCain’s remark about not winning any Miss Congeniality awards, “That is true.”

Barr lambasted the bailout and was pretty firmly anti-interventionist in his foreign-policy comments — he was particularly solid on Iran, which he recognizes as a country with which the U.S. can indeed have a peaceful dialogue. He also said he wasn’t convinced that sending more troops to Afghanistan, which Obama and McCain both favor, was the solution to that country’s ongoing problems. He went so far as to say, in the context of NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders, “It is an organization that ought to be disbanded, not expanded.”

After the debate, Barr was asked what he thought about Ron Paul’s endorsement of Constitution Party nominee Chuck Baldwin. He replied by saying that Baldwin was a theocrat and Ron Paul had betrayed the libertarian cause. Evidently Barr has written off any hope of winning over old RP supporters. His attack on Paul was gratuitous.

Here’s Barr’s closing statement and the Q+A, including Iran and Ron Paul content:

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