Correction: Bathtub Boy is freaking out. Matthews is freaking out. Maddow is freaking out. A couple of dozen columinsts that nobody ever heard of are freaking out. Ron Paul supporters are probably freaking out. I don't think any real conservatives gave it a second thought. The ones I heard from (who don't care) include Rush, Levin, Ingraham, Hannity, Bennett, Medved, Prager, Gibson, Hewitt, etc.
Indeed. Actually, I would say the libs you listed are attempting to freak out conservatives/republicans who are not Ron Paul supporters into thinking their movement is falling into the hands of the Ron Paul movement. This is the problem conservatives have now, because we are 2 years out from the next presidential election, and w/o any real idea of who can possibly beat Obama, liberals will attempt (not necessarily succeed at) to fill that vacuum for us.