Not true. Ron Paul is the one who qualified for that status. Instead the GOP nominated John "billionaire banker bailout" McCain. McCain was actually quite close to Bush on the issues.
Ron Paul was not a serious candidate in my view. Just the other day he was at CPAC singing cheese-eating surrender-monkey songs about AFGHANISTAN. He said we must stop fighting now because we can’t afford it. Sorry but getting Bin Laden is worth it.
And it’s sad too because I find much of Ron Paul’s fiscal message to be attractive. He ruins it though with the cheese-eating surrender-monkey stuff.