The Corner

Republican conservatives worried that Libertarian candidate Bob Barr could steal votes from John McCain, according to the National Review’s bloggers. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) thinks Barr would make it “marginally easier” for Barack Obama to win, notes Stephen Spruiell. Barr, a former GOP House member from Georgia, tells the blogger that both Obama and McCain would not protect Americans’ liberties, one of the primary reasons he is running. Barr hasn’t always been a staunch Libertarian, however. Though he’s recently worked as a lobbyist trying to repeal a federal law that prohibited medical marijuana in Washington, D.C., he was the Congressman leading the effort to get that restriction passed, Spruiell writes.