Wayne A. Root, one of the candidates for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, is setting out to telephone every Libertarian Party delegate to the May national convention. Since not all states have even finalized their list of delegates, he is working with an even more expansive list, a list of potential delegates plus actual delegates, which has over 1,000 names on it. Others may be able to contradict me, but I doubt that anyone seeking any minor party’s presidential nomination has ever actually done that very time-consuming and worthwhile task. Perhaps major party presidential candidates, back in past times when a large share of major party national convention delegates were unpledged, made a similar effort.
As a LP delegrate, with no phone, I have a feeling he may miss a few of us. It is certainly a commendable effort, we will see if it works.
Maybe he can explain to them why he gave $1000 to neocon Joe Lieberman — about the most unlibertarian Senator there is. Root was previously pushing for a ticket of Lieberman and McCain. Root is a neocon not a libertarian. Add to that his social conservatism and he’s very far off the mark.
Historically, phoning delegates has been a standard approach for candidates for the Libertarian Party National Chair. As Libertarian party activists around the country will have noticed, I have been phoning state party leaders for months now.
I am a bit surprised that Root’s list is so small. My list of potential delegates, based on past and current delegates, is close to four times as large, and that does not count lists many times as large of libertarian supporters. My campaign has been sending them direct mail for over a year.
I think Mr. Phillies is right — I received a personal call from Andre Marrou when he was campaigning for the ’92 LP nomination and I was a delegate. (Worked out really well for him, eh?)
What’s “heroic” about making phone calls?
Yeah, George, I’ve been getting your junk mail for a while. Do me favor and knock it off?
And Root better not call me or I’ll send him my cell phone bill to pay.
Funny a poster above calls Joe Lieberman the most “unlibertarian” Senator there is, when his opponent Ned Lamont and his supporters accused Lieberman of essentially being a libertarian who favored “school choice, Bush’s tax cuts and ending affirmative action.”
“ccp Says:
April 28th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Maybe he can explain to them why he gave $1000 to neocon Joe Lieberman — about the most unlibertarian Senator there is. Root was previously pushing for a ticket of Lieberman and McCain. Root is a neocon not a libertarian. Add to that his social conservatism and he’s very far off the mark.”
ccp, You are either a fool, or are on the payroll of one of the other marginal candidates. Root is not a social conservative, and your post is a smear aimed at those who don’t do research. Root contributed a grand to Lieberman because a business associate of his asked him to, as a favor, with the goal of trying to destabilize the Democrat Party (back when Lieberman “broke rank”). He did this while he was still figuring out libertarianism, and while he still publicly claimed to be a Republican. Since then, Root has done a lot of learning, and has rejected the theocratic, socially-intolerant Republican Party.
..But most importantly, Root is not a marginal loser with no media access who is totally unknown outside of l/Libertarian circles. And more importantly than that, he doesn’t let himself get pushed around on camera, like some more mild-mannered libertarian candidates have.
“Eric Dondero Says:
April 30th, 2008 at 4:01 am
Funny a poster above calls Joe Lieberman the most “unlibertarian†Senator there is, when his opponent Ned Lamont and his supporters accused Lieberman of essentially being a libertarian who favored “school choice, Bush’s tax cuts and ending affirmative action.—
Eric is a plant for the mainstream Republican Party (McCain). If he’s not being paid by McCain’s campaign, he at least fantasizes about it. He knows that his name has a stink attached to it, and he knows that Root himself considers Lieberman indefensible, and his contribution a mistake (in hindsight).
So what does Eric do? He defends Lieberman –incorrectly implying that that’s what Root would do. He further knows that even Root does not defend Lieberman in any way, and in fact has offered brief explanations for the past mistake of contributing the money to Lieberman, based on a business partner’s desire to destabilize the Democratic Party (The explanation is above).
I thought Eric was a friend of Root’s. (Of course, Eric views his friends as tools, and as such, rarely keeps them.) I guess Eric is irritated that Root won’t hire him, probably because Eric is correctly viewed by most people as a completely unprincipled pragmatist (I don’t know what Root thinks of him).
I strongly encourage people not to listen to any of the smears and criticisms of Root on this page. Judge him on the merits of what he says and does. Root choosing to run for the LP Nomination is a great gift to the LP, in my opinion.
Root is certainly the only candidate who has been on mainstream television, continuously advertising the Libertarian philosophy to voting America.
Basic political strategy lesson: YOU CANNOT WIN PERFECT, RADICAL FREEDOM IN ONE ELECTION BY DEPENDING ON JOE SIXPACK TO BECOME A SELF-EDUCATED LIBERTARIAN OVERNIGHT. THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN. If you want liberty overnight, then hand out FIJA literature to incoming jurors outside your local courthouse, and video it with a hidden camera while you do it. Then put any revelatory videos online on youtube. You will help set free at least some of those who dare to fight, and if you can get them a “not guilty” verdict, then you have given the gift of radically-more personal freedom. You have prevented someone from being punished by the State. THAT is radical. And it accomplishes something that is totally different and no less important than the optimal outcome of any election.
Pursuing a 100% radical agenda within the LP only gets you one thing: abject electoral failure. And with that failure comes a brazen and powerful police state. A police state whose candidates know that there is no challenge large enough to cost them their jobs.
The LP needs a candidate who can sound tempered and “moderate” and can thus do an immense amount of damage to that police state. Root’s such a candidate, based on this correct understanding of reality. Noone else comes close, right now, except maybe Ron Paul (And of course, Ron Paul is likely to lose at the R National Convention, and failed to announce as a Libertarian when the iron was hot. He apparently wants to sit in a swimming pool of leeches called “Congress”).
A Wayne Root candidacy will at least put the LP on the map, and likely eliminate the ballot access burden for the 2012 candidate.
Please, investigate Root yourself at: http://www.rootforamerica.com
All of the people on this board are completely biased, including myself. But at least I gave you my honest reasons for being biased.
Oh yeah, and since I’m seeing Bob Barr’s advertisement below, let me just say that a former drug warrior/ anti-constitutional prosecutor who as late as 2005 thought that drug warrior “allies” of the US’s foreign policy in Columbia should still be treated as “political allies” should not be considered libertarians until they have helped elect several LP candidates to office. Barr’s track record is not simply confused, prior to his being libertarian, it was actively tyrannical, and in direct opposition to individual freedom. It was one of Ron Crickenberger’s final battles before he died: costing drug warrior Barr his legislative seat. Those of you who are for radical libertarian purity at all costs have a much bigger battle to fight in preventing Barr from receiving the LP nod. Barr also favored the prosecution of Genarlow Wilson on his blog. The same blog where he opposes gay marriage (in favor of “Separate but equal” status for gays.) Barr would be an unacceptable choice for President. (Plus, we shouldn’t shame ourselves by having the LP represented on Youtube by the clip of Barr spitting out cheese from “Borat’s wife’s tits” –it would make us a laughing stock.)
As far as Barr is concerned, I take nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal’s attitude: “Former nazis may live among us, but they should not govern us.” Barr is the equivalent of a nazi, recently promoting the bombing and murdering of poor coca farmers in Columbia, in order to wage his holy war against American property rights.
You can’t be that out of touch, or provide the mainstream media with that much fodder and represent the LP.
I agree with Jake when it comes to war criminals like Bob Barr.
Not that I’m totally impressed, but this is more than I expected for when I stumpled upon a link on Furl telling that the info is quite decent. Thanks.