Bwog’s dreams of a Columbia presidential matchup died with the candidacy of Mike Gravel — we thought. Now a new challenger, while falling short of the Alaska senator’s genius in television advertising, may actually take the 2008 cycle’s stranger-than-fiction cake: self-proclaimed “King of Vegas” Wayne Allyn Root, CC ’83 and classmate of Sen. Barack Obama (and Marcus Brauchli!), is running as the Libertarian Party’s nominee for vice president.

Root is not your average Columbia success story. After being pushed through college by his father, the political science major ran unsuccessfully for Congress, and then turned to his true passion: sports handicapping. As founder, president, and CEO of WinningEdge, he made something of a name for himself in the world of professional gambling, which he leveraged this year into a run at the Libertarian presidential nomination (described in hilarious detail here). He made it onto the ticket through a last-minute deal with former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, who was trailing in delegates at the convention, making for a somewhat awkward pairing (in classic libertarian form, however, Root still maintains a separate website).

Will the Ron Paulites come out to support a proud alum? Will Root’s erstwhile mullet prove an asset or a liability? Who knows! Anything can happen in this race, folks!