AND THE WINNER IS ...

So far the Emmy for most bizarre twists in political advertising goes,
hands down, to the 7th Congressional District race. First there was
Rep. John Linder's "How I met my wife" spot, then Rep. Bob Barr's
"Barr is gooder" ad.

Now the Libertarian Party has released its promised ad rapping Barr as
a "drug warrior." It stars Cheryl Miller, who suffers from multiple
sclerosis and uses medical marijuana. "Bob Barr thinks I should be in
jail for using my medicine. Why would you do that to me, Bob?"

This is the ad that Linder last week appealed to the Libertarians not
to run -- a little too late in the game to be credible, the Barr
forces grumbled.

Poll Says Barr Is Aheader

After an Insider Advantage poll showed Linder in the lead -- as Linder
says his private polling has shown throughout this hard-fought
campaign -- Barr's campaign released its own poll Friday, conducted by
Republican pollster Whit Ayres on July 29 and Aug. 1.

In this version, Barr leads Linder by 41-40 percent, with 19 percent
undecided. The margin is wider among those who say they're absolutely
certain to vote in this month's primary: Barr leads in that group by
44-38 percent. Barr's campaign noted the sample size was 600 likely
Republican primary voters, twice that of the Insider Advantage poll.

"This race is likely to be close to the end," Ayres writes in a
polling memo. "But this is the kind of race of that is usually
determined by turnout, and Bob Barr's record of generating a large
turnout of loyal Republican voters puts him in a strong position to
win the Republican nomination."

Meanwhile, Barr has scaled back his ad time for the coming week, with
a new ad to come after that.