All of this negative energy directed on this site towards Ron Paul has me somewhat perplexed because I can't for the life of me see where there's a downside to Ron Paul for President Obama's reelection campaign and/or the Democratic Party in general. To put it another way, if we were to dream up an "Operation Chaos" for the Republican Party, we couldn't possibly do any better than Ron Paul and his band of supporters have.
Let's look at the scenarios.
1. Ron Paul gets the Republican nomination. Na' gon' happen, but even if it did, is there anyone on this site who doesn't believe that a Ron Paul candidacy would lead to the most epic defeat in U.S. history in a Presidential contest? Ron Paul has a core constituency of 10-20% of the Republican primary electorate, and maybe you could add another 10-20% of those who call themselves independents. Almost everyone else who knows anything about him sees him as a wacko. Some polls show him getting 40-45% against Obama, but I see that as his high water mark. Once people begin to understand that he's a 9/11 truther, a closet racist, a libertarian ideologue, etc., I see that support dropping into the 30% and staying there. It's likely that he wouldn't receive a single electoral college delegate. If anyone wants to mount a logical argument otherwise, please do.
2. Ron Paul runs a relatively successful insurgent campaign that ends with the Republican convention. This seems likely, and the result will most assuredly be sustained damage to whoever the eventual Republican nominee turns out to be. Upwards of twenty percent of the delegates at the Republican Convention will be an unruly bunch of Ronulans who will be spoiling for a fight. Mirror image visions of Chicago 1968 are dancing in my head. Ron Paul is really more of an independent than a Republican, and his supporters even more so. A destabilizing influence for sure, and nothing but positives for Obama and the Democrats would come out of a convention battle between the Republican establishment and Ron Paul.
3. Ron Paul bolts the Republican Party and runs as an indepedent. This is the absolute worst nightmare re Ron Paul for Republicans that can be imagined. I cannot believe that one person at Daily Kos would seriously argue that Ron Paul, running as an independent in November, would pull more votes from Barack Obama than he would from Mitt Romney, or any other possible Republican nominee. There's just no chance that would happen. A Ron Paul independent campaign would be an unmitigated disaster for Republicans and a complete dream for Democrats, and I challenge anyone to present an argument to the contrary.
If there is some other scenario re Ron Paul that I haven't thought of that would somehow damage the Democratic Party and President Obama's reelection campaign, by all means I'd like to hear it, but I can't think of one.
Now, I certainly understand that it's contrary to the purposes of Daily Kos to promote the candidacy of a Republican or an independent, so in that narrow sense, those who promote Ron Paul's candidacy here should be HR'd. But when that extends to shouting down anyone who cites Ron Paul positively in support of a particular position with which they happen to agree, I'm not sure why that's necessary or even desirable. It seems to me that the more support and attention that Ron Paul gets, the better it will be for President Obama and the Democratic Party.