Well, I just got done reading a bit on TechCrunch about Ron Paul's candidacy. Judging from most of the fawning, uncritical posts from readers there there, you would think that Ron Paul has got 2008 pretty much sewn up. From the main article:
Paul is also the underdog in the Presidential race, dismissed by the mainstream media and political pundits as nothing more than a kook with no hope at all. And yet if you believe online polls and surveys, Paul will be the next President of the United States. The secret recipe for Paul’s every increasing support base is Web 2.0
Yup, looks like we can pack up now. But wait, there's more....
It appears as though the Web 2.0 fanbois are about to suffocate from breathing their own exhaust. From the comments:
If, like me, you scan a number of social news sites on a daily basis to stay informed ... you’d think Ron Paul was the only candidate running! He truly has been adopted by moderates, and even liberals like myself have to respect him for truly getting out there and speaking his mind.
...and this:
I’m going to have to agree that he appears to be an honest candidate. While I respect Bush as a man of intellect, because the general American public has no idea what’s going on in the world, I think his terms are something to write about in the history books as a lesson learned.
...but this was the pièce de résistance:
Paul will be the next president, he may not have the support now...but his numbers are growing exponentially. You gotta remember that he is the only republican anti-Iraq War, only republican who is a true republican(small gov’t), only politician who has a 20 year record of being consistent to his principles. You gotta remember, primaries are over 5 months away, plenty of time for him to get to the top. Other candidates on the other hand are on the down slope.
Unfortunately, there was someone there to spoil all of the fun::
He’s a complete wacko:
"He has long fought for the prohibition of federal individual income taxes by repeal of the 16th Amendment."
Yeah, that’s going to happen.
"He also introduced legislation that would amend the Constitution to stop giving automatic citizenship to infants born in the United States to non-citizen parents, which has been in effect since the United States v. Wong Kim Ark case in 1898 extended U.S. jurisdiction to include all aliens lawfully residing within the United States, who were not explicitly protected from its jurisdiction by treaty."
Yes, infants are a grave threat to the United States.
"He has described the "rights of unborn people" as "the greatest moral issue of our time" and called for a federal ban on abortion via constitutional amendment, and says that Pro-Life action must originate from principle.[32]"
What a joke.
"He’s voted against allocating more money for research into breast cancer and many infant diseases, all while giving his famous rallying cry for why he votes against many things... "If it’s not in the Constitution, I don’t vote for it!"
Secondly, Paul has for several years, voted to cut funding for FEMA. Even this past year, when Victoria, Cuero and many other towns in his district were suffering severe flooding, even as FEMA was waiting for the flood waters to recede so they could survey the damage, Ron Paul was on the Hill, insisting that Disaster Relief be cut even more."
A country that embraced all of Ron Paul’s platform would be a truly, truly scary place to live.
I hate to compare Ron Paul to Howard Dean, because I think Howard Dean would make a pretty good president. However, I'm going to have to forecast a lot of orange hatted Ron Paul true believers wandering around Iowa alienating the crap out of mainstream Iowa GOP caucus goers. Yet if he manages to get the same level of attention as the "anti-war candidate" in 2008 that Howard Dean got in 2004, more power to him. Maybe if he gets the Republican powers that be to drop this stupid war once and for all, he'll have done more than tilt at windmills.
Of course, with a closet packed with a graveyard of skeletons, and views that far out of the mainstream, his meteoric rise will only last until the mainstream media does pay attention to him for a couple of weeks, and then it'll collapse. But, perhaps the web-two-oh-osphere will help him get his proverbial 15 minutes.