Libertarian Librarian

• Hillary Clinton
• Bill Frist
• John Kerry
• John McCain
• Any other mainstream political figure

And that's our selling point. For you liberals, or consevatives with liberal friends/contacts, Chuckie can be sold as a charismatic centrist who strongly believes in what the Democratic party of John Kennedy stood for-- a hand up, rather than a hand out, and a strong national defense. For you conservatives, or liberals with conservative friends, Chuckie can be sold as a charismatic centrist who epitomizes what the Republican party envisioned by Ronald Reagan entails-- fiscal conservatism, inclusiveness without overreaching governmental interference, and a strong national defense.

How do we sell him? With a long-term process, digitally driven via the internet, yet reliant on the sort of one on one personal interaction that actually changes people's minds. A sort of whispering campaign, if you will. Or the ultimate Ponzi scheme. My job? To get all of you to talk to, wheedle with, and otherwise convince everyone you know that voting for Barkley is not a wasted vote. That's it is the right time and the right situation for a downhome, gods honest, revolution of the people (maybe some different rhetoric for selling to conservatives) . Time to take back our government and elect somebody we actually want, not just the lesser of two evils, but somebody we actually want. Time for a shake up of the political structure driven by a popular desire for anything but business as usual.

Start it out real casual like. "Have you heard about the grass roots drive to get Charles Barkley elected President? No? It's interesting-- probably won't work, but definitely interesting. Gotta be better than the hacks the dems/republicans have been forcing down our throat. You might want to check it out at: http://I_should_get_this_website_up_soon.html" (not a real web site... yet). Follow that up the next time you see the person with something like, "Yeah, I'm seriously thinking about Barkley, man. I'm so sick of politics as usual, and Barkley has a lot going for him. I think I'm going to get on the Chuck Wagon."

There'll be the usual protestations, "Wasted vote", "No chance of winning", "Don't know where he really stands," but I think all of those are answerable. I really do. If each of us convinces 10 people to vote for Barkley, and of those 10, 5 are convinced to go out and convince others, gathering 10 more, 5 of which... well, avalanches can be starting by just a few loose pebbles rolling down and dislodging a few more pebbles, and a few more, and then some bigger rocks, and BOOM, thousands of tons of rolling destruction heading downhill.

One hundred years ago, heck 15 years ago, this could never work. No way to reach enough people distributed across a wide enough geographic area, ie., the entire country. But today-- today the majority of people are online, and even those that aren't are in constant contact with people who are, and I believe a huge percentage of those people are dissatisfied with their political options. Today... well, today, I think it is possible to get several million write-in votes. Let's go for it. To quote Gene Wilder in Young Frankstein:

It... could... WORK! [Loud crash of thunder!]

Posted by: Nick W. / 2:09 PM