I can't stand this guy. I'll be surprised if he has a significant impact on the race.
Ex-congressman becomes Libertarian '08 candidate (CNN) -- Former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr was officially nominated Sunday as the Libertarian candidate for president.
"We have only 163 days to win this election -- do not waste one single day," Barr told supporters at the Libertarian National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
Barr is best known for playing a prominent role in the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.
His candidacy has attracted more attention to the Libertarian Party, with some GOP observers watching to see whether Barr will draw votes away from the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, in the general election.
"We're not in this race to make a point, though a very important point will be made," Barr said.
On the sixth ballot at the convention, Barr won the nomination over research scientist Mary Ruwart. After going out on the fifth ballot, fellow candidate Wayne Allyn Root urged his supporters to back Barr and made his case to be Barr's vice presidential running mate.
Barr, 59, left the Republican Party in 2006, and announced in April that he would form a presidential exploratory committee. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1994 and represented a conservative district in the Atlanta suburbs for four terms.
After the House impeached Clinton over his attempt to cover up his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Barr served as one of the "managers" who prosecuted the case in the Senate. Senators ultimately acquitted Clinton in 1999.
Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, faces Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
In his last term, Barr became an increasingly vocal critic of President Bush, particularly criticizing the administration's support of the anti-terrorist Patriot Act.
Like former Libertarian standard-bearer Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who sought the GOP presidential nomination this year, Barr supports a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
Barr has said the 5-year-old war has resulted in "tremendous cost and only the most speculative of benefit."
He worked as an occasional contributor and analyst for CNN after leaving office.
The last two Libertarian candidates, Michael Badnarik in 2004 and Harry Browne in 2000, drew fewer than 400,000 votes each.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/25/barr.election/index.html
