It is difficult to conceive the Republican Country Club giving the keys to Ron Paul – Goldwater got the nod once and half the establishment (including Papa Romney) sat on their butts rooting for LBJ. Reagan managed to win against a pathetic Carter, a John Anderson 3rd party and with a dreadful economy and an Iranian hostage debacle. The Statist Establishment will not go down easily.

Don’t know where Mitt thinks we have a Physics Ph.D. shortage – if so, why I am hustling my a** all the time like a cheap street hooker trying to get funding????

The idea of feeding the federal pig even one more penny in taxes is odious.

As Ilana writes, now is the time to stand on principle.

Hopefully, the Obama nightmare will result in a 2012 blowout in favor of Rand Paul-types, rendering the FOX newsboy’s question moot.

1) Ron pulls center/left away from Barry, MB runs the center left back to Barry ( a real key in 12 )

2) MB as VP will give center/right the push to support Ron much the way Palin did for McCain in 08

3) Ron has a more consistent record of standing on principle folks on all sides of the aisle respect that makes folks who may not agree with Ron on everything respect him so they can justify voting for him , MB as VP is more of a fire brand & will shore up rank & file Rep. which Ron will need to win a general election

4) Ron almost beating MB in her home State shows broader strength in support

5) Ron has a much more solid base of support , he has consistently risen in the polls & support & has not gone up or down like most of the others

6) things in politics can change on a dime but at the current trend Ron is on pace to be the front runner going into Iowa NH

7) Ron is the one the establishment fears the most , look at the way Rick S attacked him in the Iowa debate

A reminder of 8 years of Dubya-era ACCOMPLISHMENTS: doubling the debt, TARP, Auto Bailouts, American Dream Downpayment (Housing Bubble) Act, TSA, Homeland Security, Patriot Act, doubling the Department of Education with Leave No Child Behind, Prescription Drug Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, Iraq War, Afghanistan Nation-building Occupation (after kicking out Al Queda), numerous defense department boondoggles, “Enemy Combatant” doctrine, expanded Drug War. ethanol subsidies….

On the other hand, ALL the Republicans seemed to imply (led by Bachmann) that the economy could be magically turned around in 3 months. When asked whether they would accept $ 1 in tax increase for every $ 10 in spending cuts, they all said no. Would I agree to cut $ 1 Trillion from the federal budget for $ 100 Billion of more taxes?? – in a heartbeat! Pushing the tax burden onto Fed Counterfeiting and future generations is obscene.

Paul and Gary Johnson are the ones I trust the most. Bachmann is a bit of a mixed bag to me – and the others are plutocratic fascists.

And I suspect more than a few of them are deathly afraid that their actions would produce such fantastic results that it would forever change the comfy but impotent dynamics upon which their success depends.

Under all that diatribe no one thinks Paul is ‘kooky.’ On the contrary, they fear that he is right.