About a week and a half ago I got the chance to sit in on a speech given by Bob Barr who is running for President on the Libertarian ticket. He walked in nearly twenty minutes late to a great applause by the three hundred or so onlookers and took his position at the podium which had a lamanated “Bob Barr 08″ poster taped to it.
One of the first issues he addressed was how he was getting very liitle media coverage, and how that made it hard for people to take him seriously as a presidential candidate. This former congressman talked about the two party status quo and how there are a lot of people out there that believe that voting for a third party candidate is a “wasted” vote.
There might be some wisdom behind his rants. Looking back, George Washington once stated that the worst thing for the United States is a two party system. This seems to hint at what Bob Barr wants to do, which is open up the political system in the United States.
One of his next points was about the debates. He was extremely frustrated that he was not invited to the debates. He claimed that the debates are controlled by the Republican and Democratic parties and they refuse to let third party candidates in to compete. He stated that this affair was outragous and should not be allowed.
Finally begining to relax Bob Barr began speaking about the economic debocle that the country is currently facing and spoke about the $700 Billion (which he rounded to $1 Trillion) bail out that Washington is proposing. He seemed to be against it.
Throughout the speech he spoke about numerous other issues from health care to the national debt and economics and national security.
I was enlightened by the third party perspective. I was also very happy that Bob Barr could make his way out to the Student Union of the University of Central Florida, I believe it have all that attended a broader view of the American political system.
