I am voting for Bob Barr. I have been active in the Libertarian Party since 2001, and I run a Bob Barr meetup group.
The only wasted vote is a vote for someone you don’t truly believe in and support for the sole purpose of keeping out someone you feel is even worse. When you vote for the lesser of two evils, you still get evil.
I refuse to send a message to John McCain that I support his ideals and that I love what he does and has done in the past. I won’t make him think that I supported McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, and his gang-of-five, or more recently ten.
Yes a Barack Obama presidency would be far worse. Just as a Clinton presidency was far worse than a second term of Papa Bush would have been. But then the 1994 Republican Revolution would never have happened. Not that it mattered much, as Republicans have flaunted their true big-government colors since then.
Even so, if Bob Barr were not on the ballot, I would leave the presidential ballot spot blank. Never assume that a Bob Barr voter would otherwise vote for John McCain. It simply ain’t true.
I last voted for the lesser of two evils in 1996 when I voted for Bob Dole. In 2000 I voted for Harry Browne, and in 2004 I voted for Michael Badnarik. I never sent any message to George W. Bush that I appreciated his big-government policies. I refuse to send such a message to John McCain either.
Granted, if Ron Paul had won the Republican nomination, I’d be supporting him right now, even though I disagree with his limp-wristed foreign policy ideas. Liberty trumps security, and he is right on so many other issues, as is Bob Barr.
