Sledgehammer Of Reality Can't Crush Ron Paul's Presidency

Has Ron Paul's Internet Brigade been interesting and hilarious? Of course! Has all his silly talk about "freedom" and the "U.S. Constitution" maybe made a few kids interested in those arcane and unprofitable fantasies? Sure! But will the loyalist Paulians ever, uh, acknowledge their guy's a fringe candidate running an anti-war campaign within America's Defense Industry Party and he's not ever going to be president of anything, not even the Internet? Sort of, but not really. Let's investigate.

Here's LewRockwell.com columnist Johnny Kramer, sounding pretty realistic:

There's no question that things so far haven't gone the way we had hoped: Ron came in 5th in Iowa with 10%; 4th in New Hampshire with 8%; 4th in Michigan with 6%; and just finished 5th in South Carolina with 4% and 2nd in Nevada with 13%.

And then there's this, which is fairly realistic, even if it wildly inflates the Main Stream Media's usual ignoring of fringe candidates:

However, while massive progress toward that end has already been made, I may have been premature about when the breakthrough will come, because the media's blackout and marginalizing of Ron Paul seems to still have worked based on the ultimate criterion for one election, which is votes. (I specify "ultimate criterion for one election" because the Paul campaign has done a great deal of good for society by bringing libertarian ideas to the mainstream, and educating many thousands of people - at least - about things like inflation and fiat money; war; empire; civil liberties; and the proper role of government, just to name a few; and I expect the effects to be felt in various positive ways over the next generation - possibly even in future elections, even if Ron loses in 2008.)

The question, then, is what exactly is to blame for Ron Paul possibly not winning the GOP nomination and then the presidency? We consult the column again:

* "It's also possible that socialism and fascism are still a lot more popular among the public than I thought."

* "Word is he was only shooting for around third place, to not win but also not get crushed."

* "Well, the rumor is that his strategy is to sit back through the first few states, let the candidates attack each other and spend themselves nearly broke doing it, then step in and try and fill the void by dropping all of his money on ads for Super Tuesday, and possibly Florida the week before."

* "The word is Ron shot for third in the early states also to stay under the media's radar as long as possible, and that he felt winning the early states would make his overall chances at the nomination worse."

* "Then he'll have several more months to make his case - especially that he's probably the only Republican who can beat Hillary."

There's also the fact that he polls about 3% nationwide and, uh, libertarians don't even like him. 

 The Ron Paul Rope-A-Dope [LewRockwell.com]

 Is He Good For The Libertarians? [Reason]