Janet, Dr. Paul is trashed because there are folks out there who don't want to be weaned off the teat of the federal government. Once Paul's elected, their sacred cows are going to be slaughtered, and I for one will fire up the grill and chow down alongside him.
I honestly think Paul will go deep in the primaries and have an impact on whoever's going to be the GOP nominee. Dr. Paul is returning the Republican Party back to its roots, just like Coolidge did in 1922, Goldwater in 1964, and Reagan did in 1980.
These folks can bash Paul all they want, but the truth is that Paul has the GOP by the groin. He can easily entertain a 3rd party candidacy and throw the election to Hillary. Or the GOP will have to be forced to adopt some of his ideas so they won't lose Paul's supporters. I think Dr. Paul is going to have the last laugh here to the chagrin of the party hacks angry that a coalition of Americans are supporting Paul instead of the MSM hand-picked choice.
The GOP badly needs to return to its former greatness, and they would be wise to adopt some of Paul's ideas, especially those about the abuses of big government and the degradation/whoring of our Constitution that has been going on for 20 years that the big boys don't want us to know about.