Libertarian Barr stuck in Ron Paul’s shadow?

The Miami Herald has a brief item on Libertarian Bob Barr’s presidential campaign, saying Barr “is not your usual fringe candidate. For one thing, he’s got a record as an elected official. Barr, at the time a conservative Republican, represented a suburban Atlanta congressional district from 1994-2003. And he became a national figure as a House leader of the impeachment effort against President Clinton. But Barr also took positions in Congress that are at odds with the laissez-faire Libertarians, notably the war in Iraq. Barr voted in favor of the congressional war resolution in 2002, although he now says, ‘I never voted for an occupation of Iraq.’”

Barr’s record “has hurt him with some party faithful who still look to Ron Paul, the anti-war Texas Republican congressman and 1988 Libertarian Party presidential nominee who became an Internet sensation during his 2008 run for the GOP presidential nomination.” Carleton College political scientist Steven Schier “thinks that Barr’s biggest problem is breaking out from the better-known Paul’s shadow. ‘It seems to me,’ Schier, ‘Paul’s very much in his way.’”