While Sens. Obama and McCain were debating down south on Friday, another presidential candidate — libertarian Bob Barr — was doing his part to add to the national dialogue, by providing a running commentary over the debate at an event in Reason magazine’s Washington headquarters.
Barr has constantly complained about being excluded from the presidential debates and, as he tried to shout his talking points over those coming out of the TV from McCain and Obama, his frustration was evident.
“Who said I was not prescient?” he said at one point. “The only one of the major party candidates to not vote for the plan is Bob Barr,” he said later about the financial bailout bill.
From his soapbox 750 miles away, Barr did his best to knock out his opponents. “Their solution is that they’re going to take more and more from everybody. … What he’s doing, of course, is one of the old debating tricks. … Typical Washington. … They cannot bring themselves to talk about really cutting anything. … None of these folks want to address the underlying issue. … He’s wrong. … That would be extremely dangerous, if not fool-hardy. … That is a gross fallacy. … This is ridiculously naive. … What world are these guys operating in? No one quesions their nonsense.”
(Thanks to Reason’s “Hit and Run” blog for the transcript.)
