Former Rep. Bob Barr, who gained fame from the 1998 impeachment of President Clinton, warned Republicans Monday that Hillary Clinton will be a “dangerous” 2016 candidate they should be scared of.
“The Democratic nomination is hers for the asking. Whether its sort of the novelty of electing a woman as president or simply all of the collective interest groups that Democrats are able to bring to bear or the unlimited resources she’ll have in 2016, there is a real danger with her,” he told Yellowhammer in an interview following a presentation at The Charleston Meeting.
“I think she’ll clearly be the nominee. That clearly is a real danger that ought to scare the Bejesus out of people, particularly Republicans,” Barr said.
Barr, the 2008 Libertarian nominee for president who is again seeking a congressional seat in Georgia, also weighed in on the recent foreign policy tussle between Sen. Rand Paul and Gov. Chris Christie, asserting that Christie has fallen “behind the power curve.”
“If you look at how the public is responding to this debate, those folks that want to use the military every time you turn around and there’s a problem in the world, I think they are behind the power curve right now. I see this playing out among the population writ large. I’m not sure this has an awful lot to do with political party right now, which is probably good. What we’re seeing is a fundamental shift in the way Americans, without regard to political party, view international affairs, national security and the use of our military,” Barr said.
“I think the polls clearly indicate Americans not only understand what Rand Paul is saying but really positively embrace it. They’re very concerned about the lack of transparency with what is happening with our foreign policy. They are concerned about not only the squandering of our lives of our military, but the tremendous cost of engaging in these operations,” he said.
In his comments to a group of conservative activists in Charleston, Barr argued that the GOP’s success in 2014 would be an important metric to predict its chances in 2016.
You can read more about what Barr — and Democratic strategist Pat Cadell — said about Sen. Lindsey Graham in my piece for The Daily Beast.
Follow Dave’s blog at TheRun2016.com
