If you wanted a revealing look at Barack Obama and John McCain, you were probably right to pass by Saturday's televised forum at the Saddleback Church in California. Although the two men shared the stage for all of thirty-eight seconds, the event was touted as a glimpse of what's to come when the two candidates finally debate mano-a-mano next month. From my perspective, though, it was pretty much Dullsville: Obama came across as evasive and fatigued (despite his recent Hawaiian vacation) and McCain just seemed to fall back on the pat answers he's polished from a thousand stump speeches. (Maybe this wasn't a surprise, considering that at least some of the questions were run by the candidates beforehand.)
The event would have been significantly more interesting if Rick Warren, the evangelist head of Saddleback and author of "The Purpose Driven Life," had invited Georgia's Bob Barr to join the event. Barr, who's so far on the ballot in 38 states as the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee, has been scrambling for money and exposure. The campaign's raised less in the past ten weeks than Obama and McCain do in an afternoon. That leaves Barr dependent on events such as the debates to show America there's another option this November. The Warren forum would have been a great way for Barr to introduce himself to America. Unfortunately, third-party candidates are consistently relegated — by the media and the two major parties — to the sidelines during the campaign season. It's a shame, because the last time a third-party candidate was invited to the debates (Ross Perot in 1992), he forced the other two candidates to address issues they had been ignoring. Barr hopes to do the same, but it's not in the interest of the two major parties to invite him to the debates.
Barr hasn't helped himself, though. As the nominee of the party of smaller government, Barr didn't do himself any favors by filing an injunction against Warren, claiming that by not having specific criteria for inviting candidates, the event amounted to an in-kind contribution to both men's campaigns. The judge, not surpisingly, didn't agree. Libertarians want less federal government, so it seems rather hypocritical to get a federal judge to step in when things don't go your way.