Libertarians for Obama: Where are they now?

by Eric Dondero

Reason Magazine/On-line Chief Editor Matthew Welch, has a barnburner Editorial up this morning at the New York Daily Post: "The Real Reason Americans are angry - It's the Big Government Stupid"

It leads off:

It's been a hilarious August, watching media supporters of President Obama's health care package puzzle over the obscure motivations of the noncompliant Americans rallying against it.

While the commentariat's condescension is almost comical, the whole evil-or-stupid explanation misses the elephant in Obama's room: Americans of all stripes, it turns out, aren't very keen about the government barging into their lives.

Ironically, though, it was Welch himself, and a number of other so-called libertarians, who helped to bring about the demise of the Republicans in 2008, which allowed big government 'O' to get elected and pass through all these horrendous socialist policies.

Welch, for example, was quite coy about who was going to vote for in the '08 election. Despite the fact that Libertarian Bob Barr was not on the ballot in the District of Columbia, Welch, who was residing there at the time said, he'd "probably throw a bone to a third party candidate."

Note - Welch admitted to having vote Socialist in 2000 (Ralph Nader), and Democrat in 2004 (John Kerry).

These Beltway libertarians and Policy Wonkers pulled the lever for the Socialist

In October of '08, Reason On-line posted a lengthy article "Who's Getting Your Vote - Reason's 2008 Presidential Poll." They "asked a variety of policy wonks, journalists, thinkers, and other public figures" to respond. Out of 42 respondents, 15 said they'd be voting for Obama. Many demurred. 13 said Barr. Only 4 definitively said McCain/Palin. (Interestingly, those 4 included Reason's former longtime Chief Editor Bob Poole.)

Here's a List of the prominent committed "Libertarians" for Obama:

1. Bruce Bartlett, D.C. Public Policy (photo)

2. Tim Cavanaugh, Reason Editor

3. Steve Chapman, Chicago Trib. Editorialist

4. Craig Newmark, Founder of Craig's List

5. Steven Pinker, Sociologist

6. Ryan Sager, former Syndicated Columnist

7. Julian Sanchez, Reason Contributor

8. Dave Weigel, Reason Asst. Editor (photo)

The enthusiastic backers of Big Government Libertarianism

During the '08 campaign, at least two "Libertarians" for Obama sites popped up in the blogosphere. One of the sites even got featured in The Economist, which also endorsed Obama.

The larger LFO site listed additional "libertarians" favorable to Obama, including:

1. Carol Moore

2. Megan McArdle

3. AntiWar.com (Justin Raimondo & Eric Garris)

4. Freedom Democrats

Note - The latter is the official site for so-called "libertarians" in the Democrat Party. They receive approx. 90 unique visitors a day, in contrast to Libertarian Republican which receives 800 to 1,000.

To the Lists above, I'd add two other big "libertarian" names who I noticed were openly hoping for the demise of the GOP in '08: Policy Analyst Doug Bandow, and the Cato Institute's Dave Boaz.

Still Standing by their Man?

Zogby released new poll numbers on Friday. Obama is at a record low 45% approval. Other polls from last week including Rasmussen, Gallup, and NBC/WSJ found him in the range of 47% to 51%.

The entire libertarian movement is now up in arms over Obama's proposed health care legislation, coming on the heels of the much despised Cap & Trade.

Notably, the "Libertarians" for Obama have gone silent. Both sites went defunct many months ago. But the listed supporters are still around.

Welch is apparently hoping other libertarians will forget about his past attacks on McCain/Palin by his Magazine, and his own tacit support for Obama in '08.

As for the others, perhaps they're also hoping nobody will remember, that there was a time when they were diehard Obama backers. Libertarians who backed McCain/Palin, (and even those for Bob Barr), should now step forth, and ask these Obama-ites, where's that "Hope & Change," for Liberty?