Ron Paul Haunts New Hampshire

Via Peter

"At some level, the enthusiasm for Ron Paul represents a rejection of the recent Republican past........"
Goes without saying

You don't have to go to a Ron Paul rally to find Ron Paul's supporters. Wherever there has been a political event in New Hampshire in recent days, at least a handful of the Texas congressman's fans have shown up, waving their signs and shouting expressions of support for their candidate. They are the only Republican campaign that does this. You will never attend, say, a Newt Gingrich rally and find Rick Santorum's supporters waving signs outside, but the Paul people are ubiquitous here, just as they were in Iowa, and the question remains: Why?

Paul is likely to finish second here in the "Live Free or Die" state, after having finished third in Iowa, and it is difficult to imagine any scenario in which the libertarian-leaning Texan could win the GOP nomination. He does not have what the pundits call a "path to the nomination." And yet the implausibility of Paul's campaign does not seem to deter his notoriously enthusiastic supporters.

"President Paul! President Paul! President Paul!" hundreds of them chanted in a Nashua aircraft hangar Friday, expressing the least likely of all outcomes in this topsy-turvy Republican campaign. As absurd as such hopes may seem, however, it is remarkable that the candidate most likely to win – former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney – generates nothing like the excitement shown by Paul's supporters. Republicans are seemingly prepared to nominate the tepid "It's His Turn" candidate, while rejecting the only candidate in the GOP field who comes near to matching the cult-like following inspired by President Obama.

There are many mysteries to the phenomenon that is Ron Paul.

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