RSS 2.0 FeedRon Paul: The Howard Dean Of 2008
by Doug MataconisFor those who wish success to Ron Paul’s campaign, and hope that he will be taken seriously as a candidate and not viewed as a screaming lunatic, the analogy to the ill-fated 2004 campaign of a certain Vermont Governor may not be entirely pleasing, but, nonetheless, the Washington Post does take note:
“What we’re seeing here is less about Paul being the Dean of this campaign but about the resurgence of libertarianism on the Internet. In the early ’90s, the predominant philosophy on the Net was libertarian. Ross Perot had a lot of support from that group, which kind of faded in the background once the Republicans took control,” said Jerome Armstrong, founder of the progressive blog MyDD and former Internet adviser for Dean. “Now that group has Ron Paul. And they’re more about being independent than about identifying with either parties. It’s a small voice within the Republican party, libertarians, but they’re creating a lot of noise.”
Added Joshua Levy of TechPresident, the bipartisan group blog that monitors how the candidates are campaigning online: “Ron Paul’s online popularity is really bigger than Ron Paul the candidate. There’s a void in the Republican party because there are no candidates speaking to the more libertarian financial conservatism that’s been the bedrock of the party. There’s a sense that what passes for the GOP right now isn’t Republican and it isn’t conservative. Ron Paul is filling that void.”
A sense ? I would said it’s been reality since about January 20th, 2001.
In the early ’90s, the predominant philosophy on the Net was libertarian. Ross Perot had a lot of support from that group, which kind of faded in the background once the Republicans took control
Let me get this straight: Perot had big support on the Internet back before the web managed to unseat gopher, and lost as a third party candidate, and Dean had a melt down after he lost a primary which sort of doomed him, so therefore the Ron Paul support on the internet today is likely nothing to concern ourselves with because… the libertarians like the guy?
I’m quite honestly failing to see the connection here. I see no real parallels between Paul and Perot as far as their online presence goes (two totally different worlds) and although Dean didn’t get the nomination he did snag himself a position as the leader of the DNC.
So, I guess we should expect Paul to run as a 3rd party candidate and lose, ala Perot, or lose in the primaries and become the head fund raiser for the RNC. Right?
(Any sarcasm in the post is directed at the original author of the article, not the authors here.)
Comment by Justin Buist — October 4, 2007 @ 11:33 pm[...] Original post by Doug Mataconis [...]
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