The New Yorker looks at the Libertarian Party’s candidate in this year’s presidential election, Bob Barr.

“To be a third-party nominee for the Presidency, one must achieve a state of mind that in some respects resembles that of the holy fools of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Such candidates are destined to wander the land with little money, yearning for attention and respect while suffering ire and mockery and bad hotels. They persist—whether through force of ego or some inner reservoir of will, or a little madness—though their mission is doomed. “It’s like climbing a cliff with a slippery rope,” Ralph Nader, who is making his fourth run for President, told me. Even Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire who won twenty million votes in 1992, failed to create a viable party.”

Read the full story here.