Potential 'spoiler' lacks mass appeal

"Your vote for a candidate of principle is never a wasted vote," he said.

He spoke with disdain for mainstream politicians and pundits.

"Maybe it's important that Sen. Obama does not know how to bowl, or that Hillary Clinton can wolf down a shot of whiskey," he said. "But many people I speak with have a deep dissatisfaction. . . . There's a sense that government keeps getting bigger and bigger. To the extent that people have a choice, it's the choice of voting for the party of big government or the party of bigger government."

Barr, who was born in Iowa and graduated from high school in Iran, does not appear to have a strong local base. He moved to Georgia when President Reagan appointed him U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

He does not fit the conventional model of the Southern politician.

"Humorless, pessimistic, sarcastic to the point that his wife beeps him when he is on TV, 'Smile, honey,' " is how the 2002 edition of the Almanac of American Politics describes him. "He says he has no close friends on Capitol Hill and usually sleeps in his office."

Barr upholds individual rights, but he doesn't think too highly of individuals: The first law of his nationally syndicated radio show, "Bob Barr's Laws of the Universe," is: "The world is full of idiots."

He reserves particular scorn for the Republican Party. In virtually every important area, he said, President Bush "told the American people one thing and did another thing": He promised to cap government spending but increased the federal budget from $1.9 trillion to $3.1 trillion. He promised to withdraw from "nation-building" but ended up mired in a lengthy occupation of Iraq.

Barr's evolution from Republican to Libertarian can be traced back to Bush administration policies after Sept 11. Government intrusion became "so pervasive and so oppressive," he said, that he reconsidered areas in which he had previously accepted a greater degree of government power.

"Every person in their heart is a libertarian about something," he said, whether they want to home-school their children, run a small business or choose what lightbulbs to install in the living room.

Though he has more name recognition than other Libertarian candidates for president and might have the best chance of attracting Republicans who supported Ron Paul, Barr faces obstacles in his pursuit of the nomination.