How Manny Klausner And Mike Rappaport Are Voting
Manny sent me this post from Randy Barnett over at Volokh:

Manny Klausner is a founder of Reason Magazine, stalwart supporter of the Federalist Society, and libertarian lawyer extraordinaire. ... Here is Manny's explanation of how he will vote this year:

I don't see any good reason for libertarians to vote for either Obama or McCain if they live in a nonbattleground state that doesn't look like a cliffhanger on the eve of the election.

Not voting at all is always respectable for libertarians, but not surprisingly, it isn't always applauded by others: for a hilarious take on this, see here.

Above all, it seems to me that the WORST move is to vote for a statist candidate who may win the election -- which in my view implicates the voter in the bad policies pursued by the candidate once they take office. To me, the only exception to this is a close election where your vote arguably could be decisive, so that voting for the lesser of the evils may be appropriate.

As for me, I'm voting for Bob Barr in California, where Obama will win by at least 500,000 votes if the election is close.

The incremental value of a vote for Barr as an explicit protest of the war on drugs is a major reason for me to vote for the LP candidate. Primarily because of this, and for other reasons as well, I've consistently voted for the LP candidate for president since I voted for John Hospers in 1972.

On the other hand, I'm encouraging those who live in battleground states that still look close on election day to vote for McCain, as the lesser of the evils. As Tom Sowell has said, he's voting for McCain because he prefers "disaster to catastrophe." From another perspective, Burt Prelutsky recently wrote, "Obama doesn't have a single friend, associate or religious mentor, who isn't the sort of creep that most of us would cross the street to avoid."

Given Obama's credentials as a far left ideologue who adroitly camouflages his radical anticapitalist views, if the Democrats win the presidency and control of both houses of Congress -- and particularly if Iran develops a nuclear bomb -- I share Tom Sowell's concerns that we may reach "the point of no return."

No doubt we all agree that these are horrendous times for libertarians.

University of San Diego law prof Mike Rappaport over at The Right Coast was going to write in a candidate but is now going for McCain. An excerpt:

First, the financial collapse means that lots of new legislation will be passed and the Democrats are likely to pass pretty bad stuff in this area. Second, and more importantly, even if the Democrats do a bad job and the economy does badly, the voters might not blame them now. Things might get so bad that voters might just cling to their government, especially if it is good at speaking to them and reassuring them. Moreover, voters might place the blame on the prior administration, saying that the Obama administration had merely inherited the problems.

I have reluctantly concluded that I should vote for McCain. It is an awful pill to swallow. I don't particularly like the man, and really dislike his policies. But that is how bad things have gotten. So, on Tuesday, I will "pull the lever" for McCain.