Detailed Time article on the Libertarian Party and Bob Barr, but serious lack of articles in Spanish on the same candidate

Monday, July 14, 2008

Libertarian Party Logo

A lot of people from the Libertarian Party, Ron Paul supporters and other supporters of a system beyond the current two-party system are really excited over the detailed article on Bob Barr just a few days ago on Time.com. Third Party Watch for example:
This may be the most amazing article to cover the 2008 presidential campaign so far, at least to libertarians and Bob Barr supporters. Time magazine is at the epicenter of the liberal mainstream media, and we’re not accustomed to such respectful coverage from the Establishment.
Here are two parts from the article (two pages in length):
Maybe you haven't heard, but this is the year of freedom. First there was the Ron Paul revolution, in which an avuncular 10-term Representative from Brazoria County, Texas, raised more than $34 million as a pseudo-Republican candidate, garnered more than a million primary votes and outperformed Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson, all on the back of a get-government-off-my-back platform. Now there's the Libertarian Party, which sold a little bit of its hard-line liberty-loving soul in exchange for the most respectable candidate it has ever had: recently converted former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, who's polling nationally near 6% and could conceivably Naderize John McCain in a few key states and help nudge the presidency to Barack Obama.
and:
The party ticket is directed by Ross Perot's old campaign manager and is already polling a respectable 6% nationwide in the latest Zogby poll--exactly the same percentage that separates McCain and Obama. Not all of Barr's voters would be McCain voters, of course, but Barr did best with conservatives (7%) and independents (11%).
Since this is the U.S. there's also bound to be quite a bit of Spanish-language coverage. Searching Google News for Barack Obama for example brings up 11,098 results in Spanish. And Bob Barr? 31.

One of them even has the following:
Incluso en un escenario de cuatro opciones presidenciales, que incluyera al candidato independiente Ralph Nader y al liberal Bob Barr, los ciudadanos prefieren a Obama que a McCain con 48 por ciento frente a 33 por ciento, respectivamente.
Even in a scenario with four presidential options, which includes the independent candidate Ralph Nader and the liberal Bob Barr, the citizens prefer Obama to McCain with 48 percent compared to 33 percent, respectively.

Hmm, "the liberal" Bob Barr. Never heard that before. Informador.com.mx doesn't seem to be very aptly named.

Okay, but aren't English articles on Bob Barr also few and far in between? To a certain extent they are, but relatively there's still a lot more coverage in English on him compared to candidates like Barack Obama. Here are the results from a search on Google News today:

English:
  • Barack Obama 126,880
  • Bob Barr 1,637

= 77.5 times more Barack Obama than Bob Barr.

Spanish:
  • Barack Obama: 11,093
  • Bob Barr: 31

= 358 times more Barack Obama than Bob Barr.

Looks like the Spanish media has some catching up to do.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

'Liberal' in the latin world translates closer to libertarian than here in the Anglosphere. They didn't forget that the root of the word 'liberal' is liber, meaning free. Bob Barr is a liberal. Barack Obama is not – he's a socialist.

An example would be the Movimiento Libertario in Costa Rica, which bills itself as liberal though its platform is anti-socialist.

See my article on the same topic.

Me said...

True, but isn't that a bit like how the word anti-Semitic refers exclusively to being anti-Jewish in spite of the fact that Arabs and Ethiopians are also Semitic? If the Informador is also on the same page for taking back the word liberal then I'm all for it, but just a bit below they equate Barack Obama with liberal views:

En contraste, 79 por ciento de los votantes que se asumen como liberales dijeron que ya tenían seguro su voto para Obama.

(In contrast, 79 per cent of the voters that see themselves as liberals say that their vote was already secure for Obama.)

Hm, on the Spanish Wikipedia they also had a bit of discussion on these terms:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discusi%C3%B3n:Partido_Libertariano

pastormike said...

like Ron Paul more than Bob Barr, But there is a movement growing to get these two to join forces. Two popular LP sites are both talking about a BarrPaul ticket. One is Barr Root and the other is Barr Paul 08. This ticket would spell trouble for the Gop for sure. I will leave the link if anyone wants to see

http://www.BarrRoot08.com

http://www.BarrPaul08.com

I would probably vote for a Barr Paul ticket. Because I lean conservative. John McCain hasnt done much to get my vote. If he would be Huckabee on the ticket I would give him serious consideration. I am not excited about anyone yet. No candidate has a sound Energy Plan either. This is disturbing, seeing how we are in an energy Crisis. I am starting to come around to the Pickene Plan (energy Plan.) You can compare his plan to some of the candidates Plans at http://www.tboonepickin.com

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