Too Crazy Even For Alabama

Remember our old friend Rick Barber, with his wacky campaign commercials comparing himself to George Washington leading a second American Revolution and using Abe Lincoln to point out taxation with representation is still slavery?

Turns out not even Alabama is crazy enough to elect this insane asshole.

The Rick Barber revolution has come to an end -- at least for tonight.

Barber, the businessman and Tea Party-backed House candidate who attracted the national spotlight after he ran an ad in which he met with America's founding fathers (played by actors) and talked to them about the tyranny of the Obama administration -- followed by George Washington saying "Gather your armies" -- has been defeated in the Republican primary runoff for Alabama's Second District. With 83% of precincts reporting, Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby leads by 61%-39%.

Back in the June 1 first-round primary, Roby fell just short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff, with 49% to Barber's 29%. Barber then gained national prominence through the "gather your armies" ad, and another spot in which Abraham Lincoln declared that modern taxation and government social spending was "slavery." (Never mind that Lincoln was a lifelong champion of the big-government policies of his day, the Whig "internal improvements.")

It's a shame, actually.  A Barber win in the primary would have almost certainly given the seat to Democrats via The Hoffman Effect.  Interesting to see however that even a Real American Tea Party patriot in Alabama in 2010 still loses elections by twenty points.

I'm interested in seeing Matt Osborne's post-mortem on this race.