Ron Paul “Not Credible”
Here’s what I don’t get. Ron Paul is polling at about 1% nationally at this point. We hear endlessly from news media about what a fringe candidate he is. And yet, the amount of vitriol thrown his way is pretty out-of-proportion to his supposed fringey-ness. You don’t hear TV pundits blasting John Cox. You don’t have organizations actively barring Jim Gilmore. You don’t see the front-runners laying into Tommy Thompson.
The Des Moines Register has a story on the on-going feud between two rinky dink Iowa organizations and their “candidate forum” that includes everybody BUT the mainstream candidates, pushing back against the very idea of letting Ron Paul into the room. Their justification:
Failor said candidates who were invited had to have demonstrated evidence of an Iowa campaign and have visible signs of support, through surveys of caucusgoers.
Note, in the Iowa straw poll, Paul came in second. In the last WSJ poll of Iowa, he gets 2%, which out-polls the majority of the candidates that ARE invited to this event. He’s gotten more unconventional press than all the other candidates combine. He’s won every internet poll they’ve put him against. And of the second tier, he’ll be as competitive as any of them in Iowa this time next month, in terms of organization and canvassing. Even despite all this, Iowans for Tax Relief and the Iowa Christian Alliance (despite Paul ideologically being the most pro-tax relief and purely Christian candidate in the race) are standing firm, even getting a bit uppity in defending themselves.
The question is: what are they so afraid of?
Either way, what the anti-Paul continent of the media and the GOP don’t seem to understand is that this sort of thing only helps the Paul campaign. There’s a difference between a truly fringe run, and one that hits a nerve. Stuff like this only cements the impression (reality) that Ron Paul is in the latter category. John Fund, in the Wall Street Journal, makes the same point rather well here. I’d go so far as to guess that Ron Paul’s exclusion from the event is already providing him more publicity and support than his participation would have or, likely, the participation of any of the other candidates who do attend.
That Des Moines Register article has comments enabled, by the way.