Confession is good for the soul, so here goes: I voted for Pat Robertson for president.
Hold on, America. Don't ride me out of town on a rail like Homer Stokes just yet. Let me say a few words in my defense.
I take some pride in saying that I have never, ever voted for anybody named Bush, junior or senior. Thus, I took a Republican ballot during the 1988 primary, and voted for Pat Robertson against George Bush the elder.
Consider this then a small examination of voting strategy. Voting for Robertson was a vote to embarass Bush, whom I didn't like. A siting vice president having to struggle for the nomination against a televangelist would have been a good and well deserved embarassment, though Robertson ultimately just could not manage to put up much of a fight.
Still, I figured the whole Republican Party deserved to have this guy broke off up in them for even being in bed with this nutjob. They had it coming.
Plus, I knew it would be funny for many years to be able to say that I actually voted for Pat Robertson for President. Ha!
This was pretty much the same logic by which I called for a Democrat primary ballot in 2004 in order to vote for Al Sharpton.
I just like to support a man of the cloth where I can.
Article comments
1 - Marty Thau
And you're bragging about that, Al? Hmm.
2 - Dave Nalle
Bob Dole was on that ballot too. I voted for Dole. You could have too.
Dave
3 - Mike Kole
It's no fun being a Libertarian partisan in Indiana at primary time. The only thing you can do is ask for an 'independent' ballot, which has nobody on it, because only the Democrats or Republicans are on the primary ballots here. So, Libertarians, Greens, and independents often do what Al did, so that they can actually participate.
I just take the blank ballot and put it in the box. I'd feel unclean asking for a 'D' or 'R' ballot.
4 - Dave Nalle
Exactly why the LP should hold primaries instead of caucuses, but they're too cheap to spend the money for it, despite the good publicity it would get them. Another example of why some of their own leaders are defecting to the GOP Liberty movement because they're tired of the half-assed nature of the LP.
Dave
5 - Jane Hill
Man, you people just don't get it!
Increasing votes for Dole (against Bush Sr.) wouldn't have embarrassed the sitting president. Whether you like him or not, Dole is a legitimate contender - he's not a clown.
But to be the sitting president and watch some yahoo televangelist snatch up your votes is tantamount to Miss Universe sweating it out because Miss Piggy is getting a fair amount of votes.
Don't you folks get the deserved insult in that?!!!
6 - Dave Nalle
Bush Sr. wasn't a sitting president. In 88 it was a legit primary after Reagan left office.
Dave
7 - Bob A. Booey
And anyone's going to take the Senator's politics seriously after reading this?
Here's a little clue for all you folks: politics, like the rest of life, is just a big joke for Al meant to get a reaction. He's Andy Kaufman, but not funny at all and with more backwards social and cultural views.
That is all.
8 - Al Barger
Thank you, Miss Jane. You're getting it. It would have been the funniest thing EVER to see Vice President Bush lose the primary to the yahoo televangelist. Miss Piggy. That's so cute.
Now, if I had for some reason voted for Dole, the tax collector for the welfare state, I certainly would not be bragging on THAT. Yuck.
9 - Warren
That was the year I totally lost the last ounce of respect I had for Robertson (not that I had much to begin with).
10 - Bob A. Booey
Whom do you respect more, Senator Al Barger or Pat Robertson?
I vote for Pat Robertson. He at least went to Yale Law and built a multi-million dollar TV empire based on his lies and hate. He's so good a charlatan that he caused a stir running for President as well. Somehow I don't remember the Al Barger for Senate stir becoming a story. Pat Robertson is a horrible man, but at least he's an adult man.
THat is all.
11 - Nancy
BAB, that's like giving someone the choice of a hot stake or a cold cut!
12 - Dave Nalle
Hey, I ran for State Representative - can you start calling me Representative Nalle? Maybe I can start a shadow government.
Dave
13 - Bob A. Booey
Dave, you're not as funny a Libertarian as the esteemed Senator from Indiana is.
You're like outraged white male Libertarian. Al is like cartoonish South Park Libertarian nihilist.
Trust me on these things, my friend :)
That is all.
14 - Al Barger
Dave, back up in comment 4 you said that the Libertarians should participate in the primaries. I strongly disagree.
In the first place, the government is paying for the primary elections so far as I know, so it's not at all a question of being "cheap."
It's a question of control and integrity. If we open up to primaries, then absolutely anyone anywhere could sign up for our primary, and then we get stuck with them.
This would particularly be bad for a small independent party. We don't have candidates in a lot of races anyway, out of all the hundreds and thousands of seats. So then some idiot Klansman or some such riff raff signs up to run for sheriff. There's no one running against him, and suddenly we've got some totally non-libertarian idiot making us look bad.
Real life example, during the last regular gubernatorial election in California, we got stuck with some "druid" wearing robes to go campaigning, talking all crazy. I mean crazy enough that Libertarians thought he was crazy. It was only after he spat on a radio interviewer apparently that the state party had the right to bump this schmuck off our ballot.
It definitely suits me much better to nominate by convention, so we get to look people over before getting in bed with them.
15 - Bob A. Booey
Somehow I don't think a hall full of people is clamoring to get in bed with Al Barger.
That is all.