Matt Welch and Ramesh Ponnuru on John McCain and Bob Barr

Matt Welch | June 10, 2008

A few days ago I strapped a strange contraption onto my head, stared at a camera, and talked on the phone with the National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru about John McCain, Bob Barr, restless libertarians, and the ever-shrinking Reagan Coalition. You can watch it here:

Some supplementary reading material:

* In March 2007, as his magazine was building up to an endorsement of Mitt Romney, Ponnuru made a cover-story Case For McCain, complete with Q&A. By that October, Ponnuru was advocating a one-term pledge for the senator from Arizona.
* In April 2007, I made a cover-story case against, for reason. The long-form version of that analysis is available at Amazon for the low, low price of $18.45.
* In our conversation, I mentioned a couple of perceptive National Review attacks against McCain's National Greatness Conservatism. They are Rich Lowry's February 2000 "TR and His Fan," and Jonah Goldberg's May 2001 "Grading Greatness" (which is best read in tandem with Franklin Foer's fascinating and ultimately premature May 2001 eulogy for National Greatness, "The Great Escape: How Bill Kristol Ditched Conservatism").

Comments

|6.10.08 @ 11:35AM|#

Needs more Kerry Howley.

Seitz|6.10.08 @ 11:39AM|#

Matt deserves credit for listening to that voice via a headset for an hour without succumbing to the urge to brain himself with a hammer.

Bingo|6.10.08 @ 11:51AM|#

Agreeing with Jaybird *swoon*

Gary Baumgarten|6.10.08 @ 12:21PM|#

Bob Barr will be my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com Friday at 5 PM ET.

You can join in the conversation by following the link from my blog:

http://garybaumgarten.blogspot.com/2008/06/libertarian-presidential-candidate-bob.html

Rimfax|6.10.08 @ 12:43PM|#

Can't watch the video 'til tonight, but the still photo looks like Matt is in the middle of a "LEEROY JENKINS!!!" while Ramesh is thinking "did I just fart?".

GG|6.10.08 @ 3:29PM|#

Matt, to answer your question at the 10:17 mark (Libertarians to Republicans: You don't bring us flowers anymore), I just now heard what those people intend to do:

Ron Paul plans his own convention

Maverick GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul has booked an arena in Minneapolis for a "mini-convention" that could steal some of John McCain's thunder just days before he accepts the Republican nomination.

A Paul campaign aide said the Texas congressman hopes to pack about 11,000 supporters into the Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota on Sept. 2, which coincides with the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in neighboring St. Paul.

Heh. That's gonna leave a mark!

Anyways, good chat. Thanks for giving me hope that America is more libertarian-minded than Deepak likes to think.

DannyK|6.10.08 @ 6:03PM|#

Ramesh Ponnuru?!?

Good lord. I hope you're paid well.