Over the weekend, former Rep. Bob Barr managed to wrangle the Libertarian presidential nomination at that party’s convention in Denver. In an earlier post I referred to the traditional contentiousness of the Libertarians, and in their usual tradition it took no less than six ballots for the delegates to decide that they preferred a highly visible, well-experienced lawmaker to a research scientist, sports handicapper Wayne Root (who gained the vice-presidential nod), and various lesser eminences. To gain the prize, Barr had to kowtow to various shibboleths of the Libs, disavowing his earlier support of the Defense Of Marriage Act and the war against drugs (at least in the version that he supported as a Republican). The party will certainly be on the ballot in all but a handful of states, but so far Democratic-oriented bloggers are rather muted about hopes it can steal votes from Sen. John McCain.