The candidates thought to be in hottest contention for the final nomination are:
Senator Mike Gravel from Alaska, 78 years old, who also ran on the Democratic ticket to be nominated for 2008 President. Senator Gravel, is revered by many for long ago reading into the congressional record, non-stop- the entirety of the Pentagon Papers which Nixon was trying to suppress. He believes in "direct democracy" wherein sovereign authority is kept by the citizens to govern themselves, rather than "representative democracy" with an elected representative who works and lives at arms' length from the people. He's a Unitarian Universalist.
Representative Bob Barr, age 59, a Republican from Georgia, and a Methodist who entered office when Newt Gingrich's Republican Majority (first time R majority in forty years) was going sweep clean and bring a new day, but Barr was turned out of office by a huge margin eventually. Since, he now has helped to found an organization called Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, a bipartisan group wanting to eliminate clauses of the Patriot Act that could wrongfully penalize innocent citizens. He is also recently involved with the ACLU.
Dr. Mary Ruwart, 59, is a Libertarian activist with a Ph.D., in biophysics. With F. Kendall and L. Louw, Dr. Ruwart is the author of Healing Our World in the Time of Aggression and Short Answers to the Tough Questions. She has a large number of supporters from her 30 years of libertarian activism. Amongst other human concerns, she advocates that people ought to be able to choose how they die and when, if confronted with grievous illnesses. Her sister was a person who engaged Dr. Jack Kevorkian's aid. Ruwart spent 19 years as a pharmaceutical research scientist for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals and has written extensively on the subjects of government regulation of the drug industry. She holds three patents for life-giving procedures.
Mr. Wayne Allen Root, soon to be 48 years old, is Jewish, and a millionaire Las Vegas odds maker. He runs a media corporation, also has penned books, and some say, he seeks to "finish the job that Ron Paul started." He is a self-described S.O.B. (son of a butcher), who plans, amongst other things, to eliminate the Department of Education, and "end all federal income taxes immediately and move all of them to the state level[sigma] The Founding Fathers never envisioned a government that could take away 50 percent of the money we make[sigma]" He graduated from Columbia in the same class as Barack Obama, and he and his wife home school their children.
The Denver Post today speculates that Bob Bar can win the Libertarian nomination "for his fame." Meaning, his profile in the nation is higher than other candidates here today. But, my girl-reporter on the Convention floor today says some of the reaction to Bob Barr is very much otherwise:
"Many delegates are walking around with big buttons that feature a rainbow, with Bob Barr's name over it, and over his name a huge red circle and slash[sigma]" "There is a large GLBT contingent in the Libertarian party," says Miss Hawkridge, and "Bob Barr was the author of the 'only man-woman marriage allowed' bill." In additional to issues for GLBT regarding marriage, for Libertarians, the intrusion of 'church' into state, is anathema.
Also, according to Hawkridge, a significant number of the delegates remember Barr as one of the most conservative and loud members of the Federal Congress.
Barr not only wrote and sponsored the Defense of Marriage act, but also voted for the Patriot Act; proposed the Pentagon ban a religious group from practice in the military: Wicca; and advocated complete federal prohibition of medical marijuana[~]succeeding in this last with his "Barr Amendment"- which also forbid any future law that would decrease penalties for marijuana use.
