LIBERTARIANS NOMINATE BARR, ROOT

Meeting in Denver over the Memorial Day weekend, the Libertarian Party nominated former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr to run for president in 2008 and named Wayne Allyn Root, a gambling TV show host from Las Vegas, for vice-president.

With eight candidates under consideration, six ballots were required to nominate Barr on Sunday, May 25. Pharmaceuticals researcher and writer Mary Ruwart from Burnet, Texas received the second largest number of votes on the sixth ballot.

Other candidates included Root, former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor George Phillies, California medical marijuana activist Steve Kubby, former Green Party presidential candidate Michael Jingozian, and Colorado’s own Christine Smith, a little-known Libertarian from Golden.

Barr apologized profusely to the Libertarian delegation for his prior support of the Patriot Act and said he had been working for five years to repeal it.

“Fear has become the driving force behind all public policy in our country,” he said. “What would I do about the Patriot Act? Drive a stake through its heart, shoot it, burn it, cut off its head, burn it again and scatter its ashes to the four corners of the world.”

Barr called for an end to the war in Iraq, said the DEA should stop bothering states that have passed medical marijuana laws and announced that he would work to the repeal the Defense of Marriage Act that he authored while in Congress.

Root, the favorite candidate of the Colorado delegation, described himself as a fiscal conservative and a recent convert to the philosophy of non-interventionism.

“I think the Libertarian Party needs a candidate like me who’s a strong national defense patriot, who happens to believe in non-interventionism, happens to not believe in national building, happens to believe we should radically cut foreign aid, happens to believe we should radically cut military bases around the world,” Root said.

Root invited supporters of Texas Congressman Ron Paul to support the Barr-Root ticket.

In the first 24 hours after his nomination, Barr received more press coverage than other Libertarian presidential candidates have received during their entire campaigns.

View the Barr/Root '08 campaign site