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Re: Barr was a spoiler after all

dahedgehog — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:11:37 -0500

The facts, while interesting....

Re: Barr was a spoiler after all

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:34:22 -0500

Thanks for the thoughtful comment, but I'm sticking with my definition of a spoiler.

— RTB

Re: Barr was a spoiler after all

dahedgehog — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:32:17 -0500

RTB, you should change the post. "Barr was possibly a spoiler" or "If you make some unrealistic assumptions on the behavior of Barr voters, then Barr was maybe a spoiler". Either are better than the declarative statement "Barr was a spoiler after all."

Re: Barr was a spoiler after all

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:10:27 -0500

True. It's impossible to know how people would have voted, but it's worth pointing out when the third-party candidate gets more votes than the margin.

— RTB

Re: Barr was a spoiler after all

dwcatty — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:08:21 -0500

It's just math.

Re: Barr was a spoiler after all

dahedgehog — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:04:02 -0500

The only way that Barr was the deciding factor would be if (1) all Barr voters cast a vote for president, and (2) those Barr voters favored McCain by at least 19,957 (78%) to 5,765 (22%).

Those are two big "if's". Particularly, there's no reason to think Barr voters would favor McCain by such a large margin.

Barr didn't spoil anything except the Libertarian Party

ConMax — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:00:14 -0500

"That puts Barr into elite company in North Carolina."

It sure did! It proves that Barr is no voter getter period! My dog would have got 25 thousand votes by simply having his bone on the ballot! Where did you political training at? The Ed Cone reverse school of new age establishment math!

Re: Mungers zingers at UNC-TV debate

LibertyLover — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:01:46 -0400

Voting for Dr. Mike Munger for Governor
If people are serious about change rather than shuffling deck chairs around on the titanic they will find out about this candidate.

Dr. Mike Munger is against government corruption in education and in DOT funds management. Munger has a sound principled approach to fixing both of those problems which is different from both the D&Rs. On education more choice for poorer urban area residents with more charter schools. And a voucher program which is more of a small tuition assistance program than subsidizing wealthy people who already have educational choice for their children. He doesn't want to raise taxes to accomplish this he wants stop the legislature from raiding the legally designated education funds for pork barrel projects in powerful legislature's districts. On roads, Munger wants to take the DOT funds out of the direct control of legislatures and turn DOT project choices over to a panel or experts to prioritize. This way crumbling roads and bridges in poorer areas of the state which don't have influential representatives will get much needed attention and cut down on the current favoritism.

Re: Nader to hold Raleigh rally Saturday

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:56:45 -0400

Coffee pot's broken. Been tired all day.

That's my excuse for now...

— RTB

Re: Nader to hold Raleigh rally Saturday

fuzzybunny — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:52:40 -0400

the ballots case

Is that the case that Indiana Jones has been after for three decades? You really don't need to rush through these posts...breathe

-Your Resident Copy Editing Consultant

Re: Nader to hold Raleigh rally Saturday

dahedgehog — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:41:27 -0400

It's sad that he's turned himself into a walking laughingstock. His legacy would have been fine if he hung it up after the 2000 debacle, but his continued attempts at the presidency are now sad attempts at stoking his own fragile ego. He has no chance of achieving anything, and his whole reason for being (Dems and Republicans are too similar) has been thrown out the window. Sad.

Re: Number of N.C. Libertarians doubles!

hogarth — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:58:28 -0400

It's difficult to understand from David's description just what occurred in the conversations he references, but as a Libertarian I know that our activists are stretched very thin in terms of supporting campaigns. And I understand that we rise to the occasion - raising tens of thousands of dollars for ballot access, petitioning for ballot access, and raising tens of thousands more dollars for a lawsuit which we hope will end the necessity of such punishing petitioning work in the future and open the ballot to more interesting candidates from an array of political parties. Them *after* we are on the ballot, the real work of trying to represent our positions to voters begins. We run for office ourselves, or support our fellow activists with their runs for office. We work outreach tables, we scrape together yet *more* money to produce outreach materials. A little weariness in even our staunchest activists should surprise no one. However, I speak to Libertarians from NC every day and I haven't met one who is not actively interested in - if not actually engaged in - Mike Munger's campaign.

David seems to have different standards for Libertarian and D/R activists - he writes:

But on both occasions, my Libertarian advocate friends shrugged off the particulars of the governor's race, indicating in effect that they probably didn't want to get involved in an actual Libertarian campaign for public office in the Old North State. ...

But I must say that at least with the Democrats and the Republicans, when you encounter people deeply committed to the principles of their respective political parties, you're probnably talking to someone who will be inclined to actually go out and vote for their preferred candidates at election time.

So it seems that David expects that Libertarian activists are expected to "get involved in an actual Libertarian campaign for public office", and Dems and Reps who are "deeply committed to the principles of their respective political parties" are "probably ... inclined to actually go out and vote". That strikes me, without clarifying information, as a bit of a double standard. But as Libertarians, we have become used to double standards. Speaking for myself, though, I hope that people will understand that every political movement contains an array of people who are at various stages of their individual lives, and that even the most tireless of political activists has a home to which he returns every night, a family to which he belongs, and work to which he must attend.

For myself, I will not only vote for Mr. Munger, I will work with him to engage the voters of North Carolina on the issues that matter most to them. I will do so as a candidate (for State House), as an activist and volunteer, and most especially as an individual who is deeply engaged in many more activities than just the political. I always encourage other Libertarians to do the same, but I hope I do not fault them if their priorities are differently aligned from mine at any given moment.

Re: Libertarians announce slate of candidates

dahedgehog — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:12:48 -0400

NC Libertarians: Where Every Voter is a Candidate!

Re: State: Don't wait for Libertarian form

MeckDeck — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:13:07 -0400

Uh, so it takes months to edit a PDF file?

No wondering handling and searching email is such a chore for these people.

JAT

Re: Munger: State dragging its feet

FFC1304 — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:26:09 -0400

typical democrackkk ballot access issues avoidance...they want to control everything in our once great state...THEY are E V I L !!!

now isnt it shameful that the LP must now REappeal to UNaffiliateds to REregister again to LP?
WHY do democrackkks want to keep the system SO OPPRESSED? Arent democrackkks supposed to be INclusive???