scale 0-5 (low>high)	Barr	McCain	Obama	Possible
Protection from Surveillance	5	1	4	5
Property Rights	5	0	0	5
Reproductive Rights	2	1	5	5
Federal Ruling on Marriage	3	3	5	5
Right to bare arms	5	4	3	5
Drug Laws	2	2	4	5
Three Strikes Laws	2	2	5	5
Minority Hiring Rules	5	4	2	5
Total Points	29	17	28	40
Overall Score	72.5%	42.5%	70%

 

So what does all of this mean, read below for a brief description of each category.

Protection from surveillance:  This is based primarily on the candidates support of the patriot act and how they voted or statements made regarding the legislative quality of the act.

Propetry Rights: I consider this to be extremely important but unforunately McCain and Obama do not seem to see it as an issue at all.  There have been very few votes on this issue in the senate in recent years but neither of these two candidates have produced any legislation on the issue.  Bob Barr gets all lthe points for A) considering it an issue and B) doing the right thing about it, which is keeping the government AWAY from private property and protecting your right to what you have worked so hard for.

Reproductive Rights: Obama is the only choice here.  Despite the fact that the Libertarian party has historically been on the side of choice Bob Barr's voting record on abortion sucks!  McCain... um yeah.

Federal Ruling or Jurisdiction on Marriage:  This is basically the arguments that revolve around gay marriage.  Barr and McCain do OK here because they at the very least agree that it is an issue for the states to decide, Obama goes a little further though by saying it is an issue to individual denominations to decide (still not entirely cool because what about agnostics and athetists?)

Right To Bare Arms:  Simple enough, the more a candidate has done to make it difficult for law abiding citizens to own a firearm the worse they scored.  Obama, has had to deal with the issue of guns in the inner city but he has unfortunately decided to make broad strokes on the rest of the country.  His only redeeming grace here is that he said that it could be a local issue.  No matter what candidate is elected and who is in office, EVERY AMERICAN needs to pay careful attention to the 2nd ammendment and demand ALWAYS that this right never ever be enroached upon in any way.  The 2nd ammendment is our only guarantee that we the people shall always be free.

Drug Laws:  Not a drug user myself but this to me is a personal choice that people make and should be their business.  If they wreck their family, they wreck their family.  Should they turn to crime then we deal with them harshly and with ZERO remorse or regard for their condition.

Three Strikes Law:  This deals with the rediculous notion that just because a person has been found guilty of a felony three times that they somehow qualify for maximum penalties.  This is a great way to put a lot of minorities in jail and keep the private business of running jail estates booming.  I have a one strike law in my house, you break in, you get shot, you won't have a chance to be a tax payer problem.

Minority Hiring Rules:  Who a person chooses to hire in their company is their business.  I understand PERHAPS legislating some rules on large corporations who offer million dollar jobs and have the capacity to entertain the community at large for every position but for small business no way. 

So it looks like from how everyone scored according to my chart here that I would be voting for Bob Barr, of course he has addressed the extra issue of property rights where McCain and Obama did not and so garnered points that the others did not.  Some of these issues carry more weight than others and there is the greater issue of how our country plays on the international level and those things considered I will go Obama.  He scores well enough on some of the hot button freedom issues and is head and shoulders above his competition as a leader of men, as an orator and as a man who is adored by the international community.  Anyway, let me know what you think of how these candidates score on freedom, leave some comments!

As a libertarian I am a little upset with Bob Barr.  He is most certainly NOT a libertarian despite the label.  Going back through his history he has always been a republican until he had some presidential ambitions and saw that there was no way in hell he was going to compete with those guys to get on their ticket, so he flops to what he sees as the next best thing.  Libertarians ARE NOT republicans.... at all.  It is unsettling that Bob doesn't have the ability to distinguish between the two and it is unsettling that the Libertarian party has seen fit to let some of their issues slide just to get run a passable candidate.