Can Bob Barr Tap Into Ron Paul's Movement?

Everyone’s favorite liberty-loving Republican, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, kinda-sorta admitted defeat in the Republican presidential nomination back on March 6. Despite coming up well short at the polls, Paul’s campaign left quite a mark when it came to the use of technology in politics, particularly with organic, supporter-driven efforts like RonPaulGraphs.com, a site which published detailed graphs and charts of the campaign’s fundraising in a radically transparent manner, and Ron Paul Moneybombs, day-long orgies of online fundraising.

So now that McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee, where will Paul supporters direct their energy? If former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr has any say in the matter, he hopes that Paul supporters flock to his candidacy. Barr, who served in Congress as a Republican but is now registered with the Libertarian Party, today formally announced his entry into the Presidential race, and as the only candidate for his party’s nomination who has actually won a significant election, will likely be the Libertarian candidate this fall. Can Barr harness the energy from the Paul campaign and mount a disruptive third-party run? Or is he doomed to receiving a miniscule portion of the popular vote, as has been the case with past Libertarian presidential candidates?

Laying the Groundwork

Barr’s website, BobBarr2008.com has a similar look and feel to RonPaul2008.com, complete with live-updating fundraising statistics on the front page. This is no coincidence, as Barr’s campaign has hired the same web firm that Ron Paul’s campaign used.

But far more interesting is that on April 16, an email appears to have been sent to Ron Paul’s list on behalf of Bob Barr:

The email is labeled as coming from Bob Barr, including the Reply-To address, but the From: email address is webmaster@ronpaul2008.com. I did some digging, and saw that all of the Paul campaign’s previous emails actually came from mail@ronpaul2008.com. So it seems that Paul’s entire list was given to the Barr campaign, and Barr staffers sent the email from their toolset but added in the webmaster@ronpaul2008.com From: address. Attaining Ron Paul’s national list is quite a win for the Barr campaign, and one has to wonder whether or not this means Paul will be endorsing Barr.

UDPATE: Wyatt Hull of Terra Eclipse has contacted me and told me that the @ronpaul2008.com address above was due to configuration error, and not due to any list acquisition. The message was sent only to the Bob Barr list. My apologies to Terra Eclipse and the Paul and Barr campaigns for the inaccuracies originally posted.

On the ideological front, Ron Paul and Bob Barr share very similar views on the major issues:

• After voting for the USA PATRIOT Act while in Congress, Barr is now a vehement opponent of it.
• Barr is strongly against a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and touts his authorship of the Defense of Marriage Action, which allows states to ban or allow gay marriage as they wish.
• A rejection of pre-emptive war and a commitment to a foreign policy of non-intervention.
• Working in coordination with the ACLU, Barr has been a consistent opponent of the Bush Administration’s anti-terrorism domestic surveillance activities.

Potential Roadblocks

But the path for Barr to become the next Ron Paul isn’t as clear as it may seem. First, the Ron Paul campaign is a memory too fresh in many supporters’ minds. In fact, as Patrick Ruffini notes, Paul supporters are dominating local Republican delegate selection meetings, electing themselves as delegates to go to this September’s national convention in Minneapolis. In other words, Paul supporters are still backing their guy, only this time they’re doing it to secure Paul a prime time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. Several pro-Paul bloggers are also wary of the idea of backing Barr as a Libertarian Party candidate because it would undercut their efforts to transform the Republican Party.

While it’s true that Barr shares many of the same views as Paul, he so far has received very little traction in the niche demographic that propelled Paul’s candidacy: wealthy white males working in information technology. Members of Digg, the social news site essential to the viral growth of Ron Paul’s campaign, seem not to be at all thrilled at Barr’s candidacy. As of May 11, only one news story about Barr was promoted to the front page, posted over a year ago and about medical marijuana. Recently submitted stories about Barr have been “dugg” very little.

Mounting a Strong Campaign

It’s unlikely that Barr will be able to replicate the successes of Ron Paul without a strong endorsement from Paul and a passing-of-the-torch moment. Paul supporters remain deeply loyal to their candidate, and seem gung ho in their efforts to transform the Republican Party through aggressive (some say annoying) means.

But to wage a technologically savvy, modern campaign, the candidate and his senior staff must be committed to doing so. But this morning, Barr chose to formally announce his candidacy at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington. The press conference was not covered live on any cable television outlets, and the only streaming video was available via CNN.com. One wonders why Barr didn’t choose to announce via a web video, as Obama, Clinton, and Thompson all did in 2007. Barr had little excuse not to do so, as he already has a YouTube Channel. Update: A YouTube announcement video was uploaded later in the day after his announcement in the morning.

Barr does have the opportunity to mount the most serious third party run since the days of Ross Perot. Since 1984, the Libertarian presidential candidate has not done better than 0.5% in the national popular vote. But today, the libertarian message resonates with enough Americans to be politically viable, and it will be up to the Barr campaign and the Libertarian Party to take advantage of what Ron Paul began.