He is a fraud, who discovered – after his own party essentially turned on him – that the best way he could cash in on his former political office was to use his anti-drug connections to peddle influence to pro-drug lobbyist groups…and then this snowballed into him doing the same for several other groups antithetical to his political experience.

Because his political history was anti-liberty, this produced the bizarre effect of making him appear libertarian.

Then he decided to cash in big-time, by stealing the entire Libertarian party presidential nomination. I say stealing, because he had not actually changed his views, he was just unprincipled enough to fake it for money and power.

This became clear when he actually campaigned for president after getting the nomination. He talked not about legalizing drugs, but simply changing the way the prohibition was enforced. He hung out with Al Gore and talked about how government should be involved in coercive environmental regulation.

This is the ex CIA officer who introduced the Defense of Marriage Act, opposed unconventional religious expression in the military, sponsored the PATRIOT act, supported the Iraq war…

Wait, let’s put it in the words of the Libertarian party officials who succeeded in ousting Barr from office when the Republican party refused to defend his seat:

“With this victory, we have fired a warning shot for every drug warrior in Congress to hear. And any member of Congress — Democrat or Republican — who introduces legislation to make federal drug laws even more oppressive could be next on our list.”
—Ron Crickenberger, Libertarian Party Political Director, August 2002, regarding their successful campaign AGAINST Bob Barr

I’d more believe Obama changed his mind and became libertarian, than Barr.