Controversy spreads over Libertarian U.S. presidential nominee Bob Barr

September 12, 2008 U.S. presidential nominee and former  is the subject of controversy today after his last minute refusal to attend former  presidential hopeful 's third party unity conference at the  in  on Wednesday.

Barr instead decided to hold a press conference of his own two hours after Paul's at the same location. "I'm not interested in third parties getting the most possible votes," he told reporters. "I'm interested in Bob Barr as the nominee for the Libertarian Party getting the most possible votes."

Several of Barr's supporters were furious, some even going so far as to retract their endorsements of him. Bloggers quickly picked up on the story and by Thursday evening there was an Internet frenzy.

"Bob Barr's presidential campaign is effectively over," Libertarian Party co-founder said. "His no-show at Ron Paul's...news conference — followed by an insulting suggestion that Ron should join Barr on the LP ticket in the VP slot — demonstrated just how out-of-touch the Barr campaign is, and how poor Barr's vote total is likely to be."

A number of former Barr supporters have since rallied around presidential nominee, who has been climbing in the polls over the past few months. Others have joined independent in his presidential campaign.