Bob Barr FTW!

Sometimes the electoral season makes you sad. Sometimes it makes you giggle. I'm happy for those times.

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr sued the state of Texas today, claiming that Obama and McCain missed the state's deadline to be certified as candidates. That would leave him as the sole presidential candidate on the ballot. Texas law required parties to submit their nominees 70 days before the Nov. 4 election -- a date the Democratic and Republican parties met with the caveat that their party conventions had not yet concluded. They followed up with amended filings.

Barr is saying the Texas secretary of state can't certify the nominees because, well, the law's the law. "The facts of the case are not in dispute," says Russ Verney, Barr's campaign manager.. "Republicans and Democrats missed the deadline, but were still allowed on the ballot. Third parties are not allowed on the ballot for missing deadlines, as was the case for our campaign in West Virginia, yet the Texas secretary of state's office believes Republicans and Democrats to be above the law." Texas case law has long taken the view that filings can be amended, so ballot expert Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News, gives Barr "no chance" of winning.

That shouldn't stop us from speculating about the possible effects of such an outcome, of course. I think it's safe to say that John McCain would be in deep doo doo if Texas 34 electoral votes were unavailable to him. Since a 270-vote tally is still needed to win outright, taking those votes from McCain doesn't really help Barack Obama that much. As much fun as it would be to see McCain scramble for a winning scenario in this instance, and given that pretty much every Democrat in Texas is counting on Obama's presence atop the ticket to help generate turnout for the rest of the races, I'll be rooting for the mundane to happen here. Sorry, Bob. Vince has more.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 18, 2008 to The making of the President