Five Libertarian Frogs are sitting on a log in the middle of a pond.  Three of them decide to jump into the water and swim to shore.

How many Libertarian Frogs are left sitting on the log?

Five.

Deciding is NOT Doing.

In the past week, since we nominated Bob Barr for President at the LP convention in Denver (and yes, I say "we", because I spent 24 hours there and 24 hours back in that much-blogged-about van full of "smelly Libertarians", and worked almost as hard as some of my real LP heroes, such  Daniel Adams and Doug Craig, to get Bob nominated)  I've read a lot of hand-wringing and a lot of halelluliahs in the LP blogosphere.  Bob seems to be variously:  The Devil Incarnate;  The Grand Savior of the Party; The End of Libertarianism as We Know It; or the Spoiler.

To quote Sherman T. Potter, "MULE FRITTERS!"

(Well, almost - there's ONE thing in that list that MAY be true - If we're lucky.)

As the convention was recovering from the shock of giving the nomination to a Johnny-Come-Lately (and Bob absolutely IS a JCL to the LP) over several long-time stalwarts, I overheard at least one of Bob's opponents opine, "We ran up against a very sophisticated political machine."

I repeat, "MULE FRITTERS!"

What happened was the other side ran up against a VERY ORDINARY POLITICAL MACHINE.  We just have never known how to build and RUN one.

One of my favotrite sayings in life has long been, "Decisions are made by those who show up."  I think it's now going to be supplanted by, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

So is it "The End of The Libertarian Party" as We Know It?

On an ideological basis, I hope not - I for one will keep trying to drag Bob further along the path toward "complete" Libertarianism.  (Can't get him all the way there myself, because I'm pretty sure I'm not there yet myself.)

On a functional basis, I sure as hell hope IT IS THE END OF THE LP AS WE KNOW IT.