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Libertarian Strategy Monthly
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Opinion
The Successes and Failures of the Barr Campaign
Conversing WithJakeBy Jake PorterShortly after theBob Barr 2008Presidentialcampaign ended, I received manyquestions regarding both the successesand failures of the campaign. After all, Iwas an early opponent of Bob Barr, wasin Kansas City, Missouri when Bobannounced his exploratory committee,and was in Denver when he finally wonthe nomination. In fact, Bob received mydelegate vote every round after GeorgePhillies was defeated. In my humbleopinion, Bob Barr is a very good manand he had the best intentions of theLibertarian Party in mind when running.In this article, I will try to present boththe successes and failures of thecampaign in a non-confrontational orcondemning manner.A day after Bob won the nomination, Iphoned someone involved with thecampaign to volunteer and had to leave amessage on their voicemail.Unfortunately, I never heard back fromthis person. After I flew back fromDenver, I e-mailed a campaign stafferasking to volunteer. Remember, I wasnot asking for a paying job. Attachedwas my resume which includesmanaging campaigns and other largegroups as well as being elected Alternateto a Regionof theLibertarianNationalCommitteeand while Iam veryyoung, mypoliticalexperienceis nothing tobecompletelyscoffed at.This time, I was informed it would beput at the top of the to-do list. Onceagain, I never heard anything back inresponse to volunteering. A week or solater, I was informed that Mike Fergusonwas named my Regional Coordinator forthe Barr campaign. Mike is a verycompetent political campaigner who hasbeen elected to public office. I e-mailedMike and within hours received a phonecall from him. In my experience withvolunteers, many would have given upafter the first or second attempt to try tovolunteer.Around the middle of July, I was namedIowa Coordinator for the campaign. Thisallowed me to see first hand both thesuccesses and failures of the Barrcampaign. It is my hope that by releasingthis article, in the future, we can improveupon our successes and not repeat thefailures. It is not nor has it ever been myintention to attack anyone for trying anidea that didn’t work. As the quote that Ihave posted on my desk that TheodoreRoosevelt once said goes “The creditbelongs to the man who is actually in thearena, whose face is marred by dust and
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