Bob Barr in defeat: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’

Bob Barr lost his bid for president Tuesday night.

But he didn’t go quietly.

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Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com

Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr is all smiles after voting at Cumberland United Methodist Church in Smyrna.

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“I don’t know about you, but I feel like celebrating tonight,” the Libertarian nominee proclaimed as he bounded on stage in a crowded function room at the Mansour Center in Marietta. “We want to tell the American people: You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

That naturally raised the question of whether the former conservative Republican congressman from Georgia would run again. In an interview, Barr would only say, “This is the start, and not the end of something.”

Barr has been an object of much curiosity throughout the 2008 presidential race as a potential spoiler, particularly for the hopes of Republican nominee John McCain. Barr’s campaign manager, Russ Verney, indicated Tuesday that he would be paying particular attention to his candidate’s final vote totals in Ohio, Georgia and Missouri.

It’s no coincidence those were all potential swing states in the presidential race.

Barr entered the race with definite disadvantages: He raised only $1.28 million and got on 45 state’s ballots. But with Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and other hotly contested “battlegrounds” among them, political observers predicted he could help tip the election to Democrat Barack Obama or Republican McCain.

Even before CNN put Ohio in Democrat Obama’s win column Tuesday night, Verney made it clear the campaign wouldn’t apologize for possibly siphoning voters away from the GOP.

“McCain has had all the negative impact the McCain campaign needed,” he said wryly. “He didn’t need any help from us.”

A CNN poll conducted in Ohio last week found Obama leading McCain by 7 percentage points among likely voters, with 1 percent saying they would vote for Barr. In Georgia, Barr was drawing as much as 3 percent.

Democrats were keeping a similarly close watch on Independent candidate Ralph Nader, who helped diminish Al Gore’s numbers in Florida in 2000.

Another third-party candidate, former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, was expected to have less of an impact as the Green party nominee. She was on 32 state ballots, with Georgia not among them.