… says Stu Rothenberg. His cute (he thinks it’s astute) bit of circular logic goes like this: Bob Barr and the Libertarians are just an asterisk. They are insignificant. They will draw no votes from either candidate.
So, don’t cover them. Or they might get real traction.
Stu really wants Barr to be “the man behind the curtain” — a smothering curtain of dictated major media silence.
This kind of contrivance often works. “Expert opinions” like Rothenberg’s will be trotted out by major-media hucksters whenever the occasional inquiring reporter suggests covering Barr’s campaign. The reporter will be duly silenced and admonished, and sent off to cover Hillary’s wardrobe or Mrs. McCain’s beer biz.
“Experts” like Rothenberg have survived, even flourished, in the beltway trough because they slavishly serve the bipartisan sewer mucksters. They want the media to ignore Barr the way it did Ron Paul. Paul (for certain) and Barr (perhaps) threaten to empty out the whle trough — from the outside (apparently, no one on the inside can find the plug).
Rothenberg predicts (that is, fervently hopes) that the Barr ticket will get a mere 500,000 votes, max. Add a zero, Stu. Try 5 million. One million per excruciating month of this bipartisan imperial charade between now and the election in November.
7:30 am on June 3, 2008
