Did Bob Barr Really Run for President As a Libertarian, or Did I Imagine That?

The other day my 9-year-old daughter asked me which presidential candidate got my vote four years ago. "Bob Barr," I said. "Babar?" she said. "He must have been a Republican."

The other day my 9-year-old daughter asked me which presidential candidate got my vote four years ago. "Bob Barr," I said. "Babar?" she said. "He must have been a Republican."

I'm pretty sure she was kidding, but of course Barr was a Republican before he became a Libertarian, and now he seems to be a Republican again, having endorsed first Newt Gingrich (yikes), then Mitt Romney, despite having nice things to say about L.P. nominee Gary Johnson. How was it that I came to vote for this guy? Even when Barr was one of the staunchest drug warriors in Congress, he had some sound libertarian instincts. After he lost the Republican primary in 2002, he began to apply his federalist, small-government principles more consistently, eventually coming out against drug prohibition (at the national level, at least) and his own Defense of Marriage Act. Knowing that Barr favored the loathsome Gingrich in this year's contest for the Republican nomination and now supports the utterly unprincipled Romney over Johnson makes me wonder about the sincerity of his ideological evolution. Still, I would pick him over Babar, whose background as an autocrat does not bode well for his understanding of executive power. I worry that he might turn out like Bush or Obama.

If Babar is a Republican, does that mean Eeyore is a Democrat? I rebel at the notion, since he is the A.A. Milne character with whom I identify the most. I suspect that Eeyore is not a member of any party and does not vote. (And why should he?) Winnie the Pooh is probably a Democrat, since he seems to believe he has a right to other people's honey. Christopher Robin, given his paternalistic attitude and gun, might be a Republican. Piglet obviously is a filthy pinko.