First, the self-described pragmatists purged the LP platform of much of its anti-war, anti-drug war, and anti-police state content, the better – they said – to win. Then they nominated a famous ex-Republican pol – who, if possible, was even more pragmatic than the new platform. He got unprecedented MSM attention. Yet the result in fundraising and votes was no better than plumbline libertarian Harry Browne. Hey, wha’ happened? Brian Doherty explains.

UPDATE from David Nolan, a founder of the LP:

Good overview, Brian — and about as objective as one could hope for. A couple of points that should be noted, however. First Barr’s supporters were talking about raising up to $40 million, and getting 5% of the vote (about 6.5 million votes, as it turned out). As you noted, they actually raised less than $1.4 million, and got 510,000 votes. In other words, they raised about 3.5% of what they hoped for, and got 8% of the vote they held out as a goal.

Now, in my opinion, this was the worst-run Libertarian Presidential campaign ever. Verney has no clue about what motivates Libertarians to become active in a campaign, and Shane Cory is an incompetent buffoon. But even if Barr had done everything right (chosen a better running mate, hired actual experienced Libertarians to run his campaign) I doubt he would have gotten even 1% of the popular vote. Presidential politics is a big-money game; Obama and McCain spent close to a billion dollars between them. A campaign with a budget of $1.4 million just can’t compete for attention and votes. Nader, who is better known than Barr and who had more than twice as much money, only got 700K votes.

I agree completely with those who say that the LP devotes far too much of its scarce resources to Presidential campaigns, when we get far more “bang for the buck” on lower level races. This is why, after the Ron Paul fiasco, I urged Libertarians to stop wasting their money on a clueless, badly-run campaign (Barr/Root) and send it to candidates like Mike Munger instead.

I question whether the LP should even run Presidential candidates in the future. But I firmly believe that if it does, there should be no hype and BS, and no compromise of Libertarian principles. If we’re gonna get 0.4% to 0.5% of the vote, let’s at least get it for something better than mushy, compromised pseudo-libertarian pap!

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.