Bob Barr on the Colbert Report

I occasionally enjoy watching an episode of the Colbert Report or the Daily Show. They're good for a laugh.

A few nights ago while watching an episode of the Colbert Report, I was delighted to see they were interviewing Bob Barr, the Libertarian presidential nominee.

My delight was heightened even more by the fact that Colbert called Barr on his support for DOMA and the Patriot Act as well as his switch on Medical Marijuana.

The interview itself did not to do much to improve my opinion of Barr... he came off a bit boring in my opinion but I think he did a good job of handling the questions posed to him about the Patriot Act and Medical Marijuana. He made no comment regarding DOMA, much to my disappointment. I'm not really sure there is anything he could say to satisfactorily defend his support of that particularly vile bit of legislation. He scares me, I'm not gonna lie.

I wanted Mary Ruwart to get the nod, and I will be unable to vote in the upcoming election so it doesn't make a great deal of difference what I think about Barr. I'm just scared that my party is going to be run over with social conservatives... Linos? before I'm even legally allowed to vote. I'm all for us getting more attention on the national stage and drawing in more support but not at the expense of the party's identity.

A significant number of Libertarians are... unsatisfied... with Barr. Many were quite upset that he was nominated and did not show much of a willingness to support him in the general election. Hopefully this does not lead of any splintering or other things that could damage the party in the long run.

Best quote from the interview: “Bob Barr has a long, Libertarian voting record. In Congress, he supported such privacy-friendly, small-government initiatives as the Defense of Marriage Act, which made the government small enough to fit in a bedroom.”