AR) Running for office AS a Libertarian is the kiss of death. (ARA more accurate statement is that running for office as a third-party candidate is the kiss of oblivion.
AR) WHY is it the kiss of death? Because the party has the reputation, amongst those who DO know about it (based admittedly upon my own, limited survey) of being a collection of impractical anarchists (ARI still think the vast majority of voters have no impression or knowledge of the LP one way or the other. The "hordes" are neither admirers nor detractors, but rather are indifferent/unaware. The LP "kiss of death" you posit is shared by the Greens and American Independents, neither of whom are known as "impractical anarchists".
AR) note the counter-examples of those few individuals who are libertarians, but achieve office not by waving the libertarian banner, but by convincing the voters they can do the job, at the local level. (ARRight, because in non-partisan races the Ds and Rs tend to lose their 25-35 percentage-point head start.
A poll in June 2000 asked about "Libertarian Party presidential candidate Harry Browne", and found 5% favorable, 14% unfavorable, 15% no opinion, and 66% never heard of him. An Aug 2008 Gallup poll gave Barr 10% favorable, 17% unfavorable, 56% did not recognize him and 17% were unsure. The same poll gave Nader 44% unfavorable. I don't see any evidence here that the LP ballot line is a "kiss of death" -- it's just a kiss of indifference.
