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# Posted 11:03 PM by Ariel David Adesnik

LIBERTARIAN DEMOCRATS? Today, Liz Mair published her very first column in the NY Sun. Liz's column looks at a Cato report that charts the success of the Democratic Party in winning over libertarian voters. But, Liz argues, those some voters may head right back to the GOP in 2008 if the Democrats nominate any one of their three top candidates, all known as supporters of big government.

The answer? Nominate Bill Richardson, precisely the kind of Mountain West centrist that helped Democrats do so well in 2006. I think Liz makes a good point about Richardson, and you can read more about his tax-cutting record in the Weekly Standard.

But when it comes to nominating presidents, I say go with the rock star. Charisma wins. In other words, the greatest threat to the GOP is Obama.

Labels: Bill Richardson, Libertarians, LIz Mair

(6) opinions -- Add your opinion

Comments:

On what planet is the libertarian vote crucial to winning Presidential elections?

# posted by

Tequila : 8:41 PM

Well, this planet, where libertarians are classic swing-voters, and are numerous in several small but electorally crucial states; after all, the last two elections were decided by small numbers of votes in single states.

The tricky thing about libertarians is they are fundamentally unreliable; they tend to vote for the least worst candidate rather than their "favorite".

There are "right-libs" and "left-libs", which I define as libertarians that are more afraid of welfare-state liberalism versus those who are more afraid of the power of religious conservatives. (Libertarians are rarely religiously devout.)

Bush's "negative hat trick" for libertarians is he scares both types: "compassionate conservatism", or big-government social projects making heavy use of churches and such, is pretty much a perfect anti-libertarian policy philosophy.

# posted by

Foobarista : 9:10 PM

Really. Any polling data on that? Or just your best guess?

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:43 AM

Bring on Obama. The guy is a complete Fascist. He's got a perfect 100 score from the Marxist ADA. He also has perfect 100 scores from the Federal Government Workers Union and the NEA. A Senate colleage in Illinois recently commented on him, that he "had a voting record to the Left of Mao Tse Tung."

Hussein Obama also attended a Madrassa in Indonesia as a youngster for 4 years. Any wonder why he's soft on fighting Islamo-Fascism?

As a proud Libertarian I gotta tell you Richardson impresses me somewhat. I'm hoping the Dems don't nominate him.

I'm praying you all go with Hussein Obama, so that libertarian-leaning Republican Rudy Giuliani will eat you all for lunch.

Eric Dondero at www.mainstreamlibertarian.com

# posted by

Eric Dondero : 9:27 PM

This Gallup poll appears to back up David's assertion about Obama being the biggest threat (well, at least at this eary stage):

http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=26815

Even though Obama doesn't have the name recognition among the general population that Clinton does, he has the second highest 'Favorable' rating and the lowest 'Unfavorable' rating of all the candidates.

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# posted by

Aditi Jain : 7:03 AM