In 2000, spoiler Ralph Nader, pretending to be a free-thinking ex-Democrat, helped throw the election to The Worst President in American History (™Doris Kearns Goodwin.) In 2004, John Kerry pretended to run for President, thus ensuring an easy re-election for The Worst President, who would've had no chance in hell otherwise.
Now, it's to the Republicans go the spoilers, with Jonathan McCain's shot at world domination threatened by none other than a Republican ex-Congressman and homo-hater...
Bob Barr, from the great hate state of Gawjya, will run as a Libertarian over the objections of the Republican Party, which has used spoilers against the Democrats for decades, much to the chagrin of clued-in liberals everywhere.
Most Republicans who asked him not to run "also said they understand why I'd run and why John McCain is not conservative and will not seriously tackle the growth in government power and spending," he said. "Some said they would vote for me if I ran, but for the sake of the Republican Party, they would prefer I didn't." [The Washington Times]
This is why the Republicans win and the good guys lose-- they know that all that matters is to win, at any cost, with the strongest general election candidate possible. Which is why they nominated John McCain, friend of the Independents and foe of the Commies, and why the Democrats finally figured this out, too, and nominated Al Gore The Improved. No, wait, John Edwards. Never mind.
Some fun facts about Bob Barr:
1) Has 36% name recognition with voters. By way of comparison, 84% of voters corrrectly identified Barack Obama as the guy from the Taliban.
2) May detract from McCain's vote total. The Washington Times notes the recent Zogby poll that found "45 percent of likely voters favoring Mr. Obama, 42 percent for Mr. McCain, 3 percent for Mr. Barr and 1 percent for Ralph Nader, with 8 percent undecided." Barr defeats Nader! We can see the Chicago Tribune headline now...
3) Led the impeachment against Bill Clinton. Of course, has made no move to apprehend the real criminal, George W. Bush. Partisan bastard.
4) Ironically, it was the Libertarian Party's ads attacking Barr for preferring continued government attacks on marijuana and an escalation in the wasteful War on Drugs that some say led to his defeat in 2002.
5) "Authored and co-sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act," "proposed that the Pentagon ban the practice of Wicca in the military," while nonetheless working with the dreaded ACLU to make sure the government leaves Americans to their private practices of possessing thermo-nuclear detonators and land mines. [Wikipedia]
In other words, he makes John McCain look like Ho Chi Min.