Reader Th.B. Nast

takes issue with Stan Brown’s missive that I posted earlier today. Mr. Nast objects to Mr. Brown’s reference to “some libertarian who supported [President Bush] on the war [but] is now upset” with the president over other issues. Mr. Nast notes that the libertarian position was strongly against the war, although obviously some libertarians supported it. He also disagrees with the prediction that libertarians will “hold their nose” and vote for Bush. Mr. Nast believes that libertarians will vote for a third party candidate, just as the hard-leftists will, and that the two groups will cancel each other out.
Mr. Nast may be correct as to what the pure libertarians will do. However, for what it’s worth, I don’t think that third party candidates of any stripe will capture enough votes to notice this time. Rather, I expect (a) that nearly every voter who prefers Bush over Kerry will vote for Bush, and nearly every voter who prefers Kerry over Bush will vote for Kerry and (b) that there will be very few voters who don’t prefer one over the other.