LP may choose a spoiler

David Weigel at Reason has done a pretty good summary of the candidates running for the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party. The MSM have been most fascinated by the prospect of former Georgia Republican Rep. Bob Barr, who joined the party in 2006 and even seems to have come around on the drug war. But his accession is not so automatic. Weigel thinks he has 30 percent on the first ballot, more than anybody else, so he's the clear favorite. But others, some with longer histories in the LP, are running also. Weigel takes note of Mary Ruwart, author of "Healing Our World," a fine book, along with Wayne Allyn Root, a gambling entrepreneur and author, George Phillies, a physicist and political organizer, my old friend and medical marijuana activist Steve Kubby, and former Democratic Sen. from Alaska and former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel (I met him and talked at some length with him at a conference, and he claimed that direct democracy would be more libertarian than rule by an elite -- and he just might be right).
I have no personal interest in this. But I do think Bob Barr is positioned well to pick up on Ron Paul's mojo and help the LP to a position of greater than usual prominence and perhaps even to deny the win to McCain. But we'll see.