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Opinion: We know Ron Paul, and Bob Barr is no Ron Paul

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Ron Paul he is not.

We’re talking about Bob Barr, who won -- if that’s the word for for it -- the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination.

He’s following in the renegade footsteps of Rep. Paul of Texas, the onetime Libertarian and now disaffected Republican congressman who ran such a successful fundraising campaign this political season, raising nearly $35 million

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According to The Times’ Dan Morain, our chief campaign finance guru, Barr, a former GOP congressman from Georgia, reported raising a lousy $196,400 last month to give him a grand campaign-long total of $384,864.

Last month he reported spending $180,770, pushing his total outlays to $312,483. Let’s see, that leaves him $72,381 to carry him through to election day Nov. 4, unless he raises some more money.

Paul, who ran as a determined small-government, antiwar Republican and came up something around 1,000 delegates short of the nomination, reported ending July with only 649,625.70 in the bank. Last we heard he had several million left over from his unsuccessful presidential run.

But Paul has since transferred $10,000 to his nonprofit organization and a hefty $3.5 million of that money into his congressional campaign, which might seem unnecessary to some because he has no Democratic (or Libertarian) opponent in the November general election for his 11th House term.

In one sense, Barr may be taking a page from Paul. He ended the month with a tiny $1,000 in debt. Paul ended his campaign with zero debt, as the fiscal conservative has consistently done in every reporting month.

Maybe Barr just needs his own campaign blimp.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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