This comes to no surprise. Ron Paul is the only unqualified Republican candidate. As a Conservative Republican, I know a RINO (Republican In Name Only) when I see one and Ron Paul fits that description. Paul keeps saying he’s an “Antiwar Republican”, which is funny because there is no such thing. Republicans know when it’s necessary to defend the country. Second, he’s a Libertarian. Libertarians are not Conservatives they are Liberal sociably, though it is fair to say that some are Right leaning, but most lean to the Left and that is defenitely the case with Ron Paul. Paul is part of the “Blame America First” crowd and is hurting Conservatives by hurting the GOP. The other Republican candidates are all qualified to be president. They would all make great leaders because they are true Conservatives who are supported by true Conservative Republicans, unlike Ron Paul who is just a knat.
Ayn Rand was a strong anti-Communist, as would befit a refugee from the USSR, and her heirs are advocates of a strong defense who recognize the threat from Islamic militancy. Back in the 1970s, Rothbard, the intellectual father of the pro-Ron Paul faction of libertarians, began cooperating with several New Leftists and others in condemning American imperialism, seeing American foreign policy and corporate interests, rather than Communist plans for world domination, as the main threat to world peace.
As conservatives have factions, such as free marketers, defense advocates, moral conservatives, etc., so do libertarians. It is wrong to see them all as computer nerds, druggies, and other marginal social types. As for Ron Paul, while he may cite Jefferson and Patrick Henry, his most important influence is not these men of the 18th Century, but one of the 20th Century, Murray Rothbard.