Georgia commentator predicts Allen Buckley could go as high as 9% in his Senate race

Senateguru, in crafting an endorsement for Democrat Jim Martin in the Georgia Senate race, tries to explain why Martin (currently 13-16 points behind Saxby Chambliss in head-to-head polling) could actually beat the incumbent Republican.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, however, the only chance of defeating Chambliss keeps coming back to ... Allen Buckley:

Second, third Party candidates will play a big role in Georgia on Election Day. The Libertarian nominee for President this year is former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr. While Barr obviously can't shave votes directly from Chambliss, the Georgia Libertarian Party is also running a Senate candidate, attorney Allen Buckley. Buckley was the Libertarian nominee for Lieutenant Governor in the same 2006 election in which Jim Martin ran. Buckley scored 3.6% of the vote. With Bob Barr creating a higher profile reason for disenchanted Republicans nationwide (and in Georgia particularly) to leave the GOP for the Libertarian ballot line, Buckley can expect to do even better in 2008. And, of course, it's very reasonable to expect that voters for the Libertarian Buckley would more likely have voted for Chambliss than for the Democratic nominee. Buckley could shave four or five or, heck, maybe eight or nine points off of Chambliss' right wing.

This does have a certain whistling past the graveyard sound, when you are expecting another candidate to carry you past a strong incumbent--but it does speak volumes for the potential growing support for Buckley.

More germane for Allen's chances, however, is the continuing coverage he's receiving in Georgia media, including yesterday's story about the Democratic challengers in the Macon Telegraph, which asked Buckley for his take:

Whoever wins the Aug. 5 runoff, which any registered voter who did not vote in the Republican primary this past Tuesday can participate in, will face Chambliss in the November general election. Libertarian Allen Buckley also is in the race, and he said this week that he's not impressed with either of the Democrats still standing, or with Chambliss.

"I'm certain I would make a better senator than them," said Buckley, who called himself "a real conservative" who vows to stay out of people's business and espouse conservative fiscal and foreign policies.

"I will have solutions to problems," Buckley said. "They will involve sacrifice."

With the Telegraph how having carried stories that reference the Libertarian candidate for several days running, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (which includes him in the weekly question for candidates), it might even be possible to see Buckley's name included in the polls one day soon.

Most current polls are showing 10-14% of the voters unwilling to accept either Chambliss or one of the Democrats as a preference; I suspect that with Buckley's name in the mix he would pick up at least 4% right now.

Of course, hell will have to freeze over before that happens....

Comment Rescue (?) and child-related gun violence in Delaware

In my post about the idiotic over-reaction to a New Jersey 10-year-old posing with his new squirrel rifle , Dana Garrett left me this response: One waits, apparently in vain, for you to post the annual rates of children who either shoot themselves or someone else with a gun. But then you Libertarians are notoriously ambivalent to and silent about data and facts and would rather talk abstract principles and fear monger (like the government will confiscate your guns). It doesn't require any degree of subtlety to see why you are data and fact adverse. The facts indicate we have a crisis with gun violence and accidents in the USA, and Libertarians offer nothing credible to address it. Lives, even the lives of children, get sacrificed to the fetishism of liberty. That's intellectual cowardice. OK, Dana, let's talk facts. According to the Children's Defense Fund , which is itself only querying the CDCP data base, fewer than 10 children/teens were killed per year in Delaw

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

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