"If I were voting in the Democratic primary, I would vote for Obama."
- David Friedman
Everyone's favorite anarcho-capitalist economist sees some libertarian traits in Barack Obama's interest in decriminalizing marijuana and the fact that Obama's health care plan doesn't force people to buy insurance if they don't want to. On his blog Friedman goes on to suggest two ways that Obama might be able to appeal to libertarian voters.
1. Obama could instruct federal law enforcement not to go after people using marijuana for medical reasons.
2. Obama could promise to use at least half of the money saved by ending the Iraq war to reduce the federal deficit. "That puts him in the position of the fiscally responsible candidate, which should appeal to conservatives as well as libertarians. And it is a pledge that McCain cannot match, since he supports the war and so is not going to have any peace dividend to allocate."
Friedman recognizes - as I do - that Obama is not a libertarian. But Friedman believes that either or both of these steps would be enough to swing a significant number of libertarian voters to Obama from the Republican camp which, he notes, "hasn't provided much for them in recent years."
Friday, March 14, 2008
David Friedman on Obama
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1 comment:
friedman said he's support obama if he voted in the democratic primary. since he's not going to vote in that primary, it's a pretty useless endorsement, imo
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