Ummm....

Neither.  

Republican.

Rumor has it that he will choose libertarian law professor Richard Epstein as his running mate!

Um. To actually "hurt" one of the nominees' he'd have to actually attract something called "votes" which would be kind of hard, given that about 98 percent of voters probably have no idea who the guy even is.

Barr is really only a libertarian on the surface. His positions on social issues are not those of Andrew Sullivan conservatives but James Dobson conservatives. HIs candidacy would be a gift to the Democrats, particularly in southern conservative states where Obama racked up big wins.

Barr's candidacy will hurt McCain.  Undoubtdedly Barr was encouraged by rumblings from social conservatives that McCain is not winning them over.  Barr may not win many votes, but he can win enough to upset McCain.  As Nader proved in 2000 it doesn't take many votes in a key state to tip the election.

I'm sure this will have a huge impact on that vital constituency known as "People Who Have Heard of Bob Barr," which as far as I can tell includes his congressional district and his immediate family.  Beyond that, I don't really see this siphoning off enough support from McCain in swing states to even register.

adaglas,

Even if Bob Barr only does well in his home state of Georgia -- a Red state Obama could put in play -- that might be enough to help tip the balance. dubyadouter is correct in that there are still a lot of angry social conservatives out there that won't get behind McCain. Barr will find them and become their megaphone.

hurts mccain.

I see your point about Georgia, but I still wonder if enough social conservatives will really, in essence, throw their vote away to a candidate they know has no shot in hell (after all, they're not Democrats).  I'm sure Judis or someone could crunch the numbers better than I could, but I would imagine the bulk (or entirety) of Obama's support in Georgia would come from metro Atlanta.  How big a split would there have to be in the rest of the state between McCain and Barr to let that region win out?

huts mccain, but probably not much

Neither.

What would hurt McCain is if Ron Paul decided to run as an independent... that man has the racist, paranoid gold fetishist vote locked down tight.

Adalgas,

You'd be surprised what disaffected voters will do when they feel that their party has "abandoned" them. I think you'd be surprised by the number of social conservatives just waiting to punish the Republicans for their disloyalty.

no, everybody is wrong. It hurts Mike Gravel the most, and then Ralph Nader, and after that whoever is the candidate of the Green party, and next the candidate of the Whig party, and lets not forget the all important Rastafarian party whose candidate Barb Boo will follow his name on the ticket.

"So it's unclear which nominee -- Republican or Democrat -- Barr's bid might hurt come the general. "

Agreed with blackton. It clearly hurts whichever 3rd party nut's name sounds slightly less visually pleasing than Bob Barr's.

The "open secret," as Reason puts it, is pretty much out: Bob Barr is going to announce his candidacy for president in Kansas City this weekend. There is no truth, however, at least according to Reason staff writer David Weigel, to the rumor proffered

We have another Presidential wannabe: Rumors have been circulating over the past week that former House Manager and Georgia Congressman Bob Barr may run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket. A well-informed source tells me today that he will