I bet they didn't mean to do that...

[caddyman]

This piece of news comes to me courtesy suitandtieguy, so I can't pretend to have hunted it down myself.

The US Libertarian Party report that down in Texas voters will have the choice of voting for Bob Barr for US President in November, or not voting at all.

"Unless the state of Texas violates its own election laws, Congressman Barr will be the only presidential candidate on the ballot," says Russell Verney, campaign manager for the Barr Campaign and the former campaign manager for Ross Perot. "Texas law makes no exceptions for missing deadlines."

I'm sure that there are some shenanigens ahead in the next few months that will enrich dozens of lawyers in the Lone Star State as both the Democrats and Republicans try to make up for their lapse.

That said, I guess the Republicans should worry more than the Democrats? Armed with a view of US political whimsey based almost entirely on the premise that I won't like anyone they elect and a shaky understanding of voting patterns culled almost exclusively from watching The West Wing, I'd have thought that the chances of Texas voting Democrat is less likely than snow drifts in Houston on Independence Day.

So kerching then, for Barracks O'Bama.

Comments

[maleghast.livejournal.com]

You know, since becoming interested because of The West Wing and then reading around in things like The New Yorker and Time / Newsweek and the odd US newspaper and even the odd book here and there as well as the Internet (so it must be true) I'd have to say that The West Wing is pretty much on the money for most things in terms of current US political trends, apart from Texas being a Dem state in the last season and a half of WW, but then the Dem candidate is a Texan and it is fiction after all... ;-)

Still, I'm off to read more about this (workload 2day appears to be non-existant), as it sounds immensely amusing and as you say, no bad thing for BoB...

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

The good old US of A, bringing democracy to the world!

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

Or Else.

[good1zrtaken.livejournal.com]

you'll eat it and you'll like it!

i'm so ashamed.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Entirely separately, what do you know about, I think, European Law - particularly about buying something legally in one EU country and importing it to another where it is not legally for sale?

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Naff all, I'm afraid.

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

You cannot buy guns - superguns or weapons of mass destruction !

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

Texas is not as republican as you'd think. Austin is a hotbed of revolutionaries -- well ok, maybe not that extreme, but certainly not rednecks. Dallas has a large gay community and I really hope they don't ALL vote for G-Dubya. My sister in law spends half the family time riling up her Dad since she's strongly Dem and he is just as strongly conservative.

As usual, what people assume about the States is about as correct as assuming that everyone in England lives in a quaint cottage with roses climbing around the door and ivy everywhere else.

Course, it's so much easier just to assume and be sarcastic, especially since the US has led the charge on bigoted intolerance in the last several years. Meh.

The more I think about politics, the more I detest mankind.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Quite - Ever heard of LBJ! Thinking Republican and Democrat are pure left and right as we think of them is wrong. Remember when LBJ was doing one of the most incredible political head-cracking exercises ever (the forcing through of the civil rights laws) the big hold-outs (to my knowledge) were southern DEMOCRATS. Yeah the Republicans thses days seemed to have fossilised a great deal and the Democrats seem to not know what they stand for but they have not always been like this. Many states thought of as pure Republican didn't used to be. The Republicans were pro-emancipation when many Democrats were slagging off Lincoln.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Ever heard of LBJ?

I tell you mate, if I hadn't camped out on that grassy knoll, neither would you.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

AH-HA! I have you...what a schoolboy error!

Damn you for what you did - not for killing JFK but for making the brains-in-trousers git a martyr.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

D'OH!

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I think that my final paragraph illustrates that I don't pretend to have a deep knowledge of US politics.

Nonetheless, Texas' Electoral college votes have gone for the Republican candidate in every election since Carter won it for the Democrats in 1976.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone here wants to start thinking of '76 as ancient history, that's only 4 presidents ago (I think).

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

It's ancient history in political terms.

Think of the UK in '76 (but edit out the flares): entire and long-lasting political careers have started and ended in that time. It's more than a generation ago.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

I was born in '73 so it *can't* be ancient history : )

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to imply anything bad, Bry. I've been reading and watching and reading and I STILL don't have a deep knowledge of US politics. Sometimes it's sublime, but most of the time it's ridiculous.

I just took your post as an excuse for a minirant about politics. I hate most politicians and distrust all of them, especially since what you have to do these days to get elected pretty much ensures Beelzebub has your soul if he didn't already.

Boo politics. Bring back benevolent dictatorships. I'll volunteer, if the pay and benefits are good enough.

[good1zrtaken.livejournal.com]

oy. one never knows what to expect next. or from where one will get information. yikes. hadn't heard about that. sounds a bit unfair and undemocratic.
then again, this is the uhmerka.

[drjohnsilence.livejournal.com]

I have a Bob Barr '08 bumper sticker on my car. However, election laws are made to be broken (look at the completely illegal substitution of Lautenberg for Torricelli in New Jersey a couple of years back). This won't last.

The Heart Attack/Palin ticket is looking good, though (hem, hem).