Centerfield

I think people generally want to have a loonie around, indeed someone as polite and professorial as Ron, but are certainly not going to vote for him. Another theory is that he actually shares some thoughts with the Far Left so the space warping leaves some able to occupy both fringes -yapping as quasi-celebrities to the Far Out There crowd. During more centrist times, Ron might seem more odd, but in a way he is a mascot for the derangement we live in. Gravel was a character too. It reminds me of great thinkers who people find fascinating but then you read they had some dark secret or perverse ideas. You still keep the person around, but you're never again are really comfortable with taking them seriously.

The other fact is that he does not project meaness or uncivility. He is careful never to speak in terms that could be taken as slurs. It is almost that he is blind to those elements that make many angry. I listened to his interview with Glen Beck. He explained his foreign policy with a straight face and why he wasn't an Anti-Zionist. Even Beck was stunned, but Paul seems to think his theories are so simple and clear. Given his views, there is some fascination with that faith, whereas Forbes was unsettling and Buchanan disturbing. Ron Paul is like someone's Grand Pa and falls back on Libertarian creeds of freedom and choice making his grand paln less scary.

As I said, his looniness crosses the political divide and therein lies his staying power. Moonbats have a union whether they admit it or not.