MORE BAD NEWS FOR McCAIN-- LIBERTARIAN PARTY JUST NOMINATED BOB BARR

Can he throw Arizona to Obama?

It was a surprisingly-- and hilariously-- contentious convention battle, but the Libertarian Party picked Bob Barr as their nominee today. Barr wound up with 324 votes to Mary Ruwart's 276 on the 6th-- and decisive-- ballot. The mainstream media is asking how badly he will hurt McCain. With only a tiny handful of states eager for a 3rd Bush term, how much harm could e really do anyway? I guess he could take away some votes in places like Georgia, Montana, Alaska, maybe even Texas, to swing the election in those states to Obama.

A couple weeks ago Barr said that "if Senator McCain... does not succeed in winning the presidency ... it will be because Senator McCain did not present, and his party did not present, a vision, an agenda, a platform and a series of programs that actually resonated positively with the American people." Barr derides McCain as a status quo candidate and polls show him taking 6-7% of the vote nationally.

In a news conference following the vote, Barr's campaign manager, Russell Verney, said the campaign's headquarters would be in Atlanta and that the campaign hopes to raise $30 million to battle Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain and whichever Democrat emerges with that party's nomination.

The 59-year-old Barr said the Libertarian Party anticipates being on the ballot in 48 states, but work remains to be done in 20 of those to ensure access.

Barr had to overcome the objections of many Libertarians who viewed him as an interloper and who questioned his commitment to Libertarian ideals.

Ruwart said Barr had not embraced fully the Libertarian message on key party issues, such as legalization of all drugs or of ending all federal taxation. But in the end, enough delegates saw a chance with Barr to take the party to new heights.

Having someone with Barr's relatively high profile "means great things for the Libertarian Party," national party spokesman Andrew Davis said. "It means the best year the Libertarian Party has ever had in its 35-year history."