Bob Barr's SnubGate - See the links!

On September 10th Libertarian Party presidential candidate threw away a couple hundred thousand votes when he retracted his promise to attend a Ron Paul press conference, one announcing Paul had turned down an invitation to endorse Insane McCain and instead to announce 4 principles of unity among third party candidates. Instead Barr held his own press conference at the same venue just a few hours later, inviting Ron Paul to be his vice presidential running mate and claiming he was thus exerting "real" leadership! Barr's obnoxious aide Shane Cory actually told a Paul staffer to "fuck himself."

Considering that Ron Paul as a republican had been able to attract more libertarian sympathizers than Barr, and raise more money in a few hours than Barr has raised in his whole campaign, that's some chutzpah!

Disgusted and outraged Ron Paul supporters and Libertarian Party members dropped their support for Barr on the spot, and started organizing petition and other campaigns to have the Libertarian National Committee drop him from the ticket. Not likely given the LNC's sympathies to Barr and the lack of a more sensational crime. Below are a few links to read some news and commentary.

There were dozens of mainstream news stories including:
* Associated Press Paul says he turned down appeal to endorse McCain
* ABC News Bob Barr Attends Ron Paul Rally to Woo Paul Supporters
* Dana Milbank in the Washington Post Third-Party Candidates Choose Clown Makeup Over Pig Lipstick (Ron Paul, Cynthia McKinney, Chuck Baldwin and Ralph Nader -- the picture of unity)
*Barr's home state Atlanta Constitution, taking him semi-seriously, Barr asks Ron Paul to be his running mate.
* Wiki news article Controversy Spreads over Libertarian candidate Bob Barr

Then some statements issued by Paul and Barr:
* 9/11 Campaign Blog - Principled Leadership in Times of Crisis
* Bob Barr Shows Leadership to Unify Liberty Movement
* Libertarian Party statement defending Barr's bad behavior and trashing Paul!
* Another statement defending Barr's actions in more general terms
* Statement from Don Rasmussen, Events Coordinator for Paul's Campaign for Liberty.
* Reactions from Ron Paul supporters on Campaign Liberty site

And lots of commentary:
* LP founder David Nolan The Barr Campaign is over
* United Liberty's Blow by Blow description of events
* Independent Political Reports Collection of Articles on SnubGate (good place to keep up to date)
* LewRockwell.Com archives Sept 10 and Sept 11 and Sept 12
* LP member Jim Duensing's thoughts

There's the Petition to dump Barr and comments about it. UPDATE: Wikinews on move in National Libertarian Committee to Dump Barr.

And of course there's William Hughes videos of whole Paul event. And below Paul and Ralph Nader on CNN discussing the press conference.

Ultimate Update from Bob Barr's home state Atlanta Constitution: Libertarian idol Ron Paul endorses someone who’s not Bob Barr