Presidents have become celebrities. So says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee for president. That, he says, may be one reason they believe they have been elected to transform the world rather than fulfill the responsibilities of their office.

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“Sen. John McCain says that he wants to inspire Americans ‘to serve a cause greater than their self-interest,’ and Sen. Barack Obama says that ‘the basic idea of empathy’ caused him to run for president,” observes Barr. “But if they want to promote selflessness and empathy, they should become ministers or motivational speakers, not politicians.”

As Barr sees it, there is much good in being empathetic and selfless, but that is not why people elect a president. People elect a president, he argues, to manage the federal government; an institution of limited powers as established by the Constitution.  “That means protecting our lives and liberties from foreign threats.  It also means confronting problems that we can only solve by working together at the national level,” he says. “These are important, but limited duties.

THE PROMISES BARR IS NOT MAKING

Barr is making promises not – but economic prosperity is not one of them. That seems to be a dangerous stance in an election that is centered on the economy. But in his view presidents do not control the economy and could not be trusted to do so even if they had that ability. Almost every government intervention in the economy is counterproductive, he says.

Barr is making promises – but not to invest in new energy technologies. That’s another potentially controversial stance. But, he says, investing in new energy tech is the private sector’s job. “The government has no money of its own and has an awful record in choosing economic ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’  My job as president would be to keep government from getting in the way,” he says.

Barr is making promises – but not to ensure every child has an education, make sure every American has health insurance, or provide job retraining for every worker. These are the very threads the other candidates are standing on, but he says, No president can honestly make those guarantees, and none of these are the responsibility of the federal government.

“The president takes an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution,” Barr says. “Fulfilling this promise would be my priority as president.  The president’s job is not to run America, or the American economy, or any particular industry. The president’s job is to be the chief executive of the federal government. That job I would perform to the best of my ability.”

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