You're right, Doug, Barr is the only true conservative in the race, and he is defending the Constitution.

That in itself will guarantee he won't get elected, in my opinion. It would threaten too many established interests. They all find the Constitution inconvenient. It gets in the way of their personal ambitions.

SINSULL, I do not see how McCain's "years spent in a POW camp being tortured, threatened with death, starved and abused" had anything to do with defending the US Constitution. I do see how they had something to do with John McCain defending the human spirit, embodied in himself, and enduring great hardship and suffering. That is something to be respected, but it has nothing to do with whether or not someone should be elected president.

Hundreds of thousands of German soldiers and airmen like Erich Hartmann (the greatest flying ace in history) had to endure similar treatment in Russian prison camps during and after WWII. Most of them did not survive their imprisonment. Most of them were worked to death, tortured to death, and murdered. Hartmann did survive, never yielded to attempts to break his spirit, and he was returned finally by the Russians to West Germany in the 50's and served honorably in the postwar German air force (Luftwaffe) which was part of Nato.

Was Hartman defending a constitution or a way of government during his imprisonment? Was he defending some political document? No. He was defending the human spirit, embodied in himself...and he endured the same kind of things that John McCain did. No one has suggested electing him to high office on the basis of what he suffered in Russian concentration camps...or let's be more specific: Russian death camps.