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I am not convinced that a Ron Paul 3rd party bit would hurt the GOP any more than it would hurt Obama/Democrats. At least 50% of Ron Paul's support is not coming from actual Republicans anyway. Here is the thing with the RP cult, most of them are ONLY interested in voting for RP. Period. There is sizable crowd of drug addled, peacenik college kids that are supporting Paul, but do not identify as Republicans. When Paul fails to win the nomination, he is not going to endorse the actual GOP nominee anyway. My guess is half or more of his supporters, being young hippie/hipster types will end up voting for Obama rather than the Republican nominee. All the paulbots I knew in 2008 pretty much ended up voting for Obama. The real libertarians that actually understand his message will vote for the Libertarian party candidate - but that is a minority of his supporters.

As to Rand... Well, I like him, but part of me has never trusted him. I suspect he actually supports the crazy stuff his Dad believes, but is smart enough to know he could never win statewide in Kentucky if he admitted as much. Glad to have Rand in the Senate, but I am suspicious he isn't being fully honest about what his agenda really is. I'll bet lurking under the surface, we will one day find out Rand is much more like his father than he lets on - complete with the wacky conspiracy theories, isolationist foreign and dangerous defense policies.

Old hippies who vote for a limited government candidate don’t bother me at all. It would be interesting to find out to what extent they comprehend Ron Paul’s desire to eliminate the Department of Education, etc. This could be a case where a coalition tilts conservative in the bigger scheme of things. I can live with a liberal without the tax-and-spend-big-government mentality, who appreciates the benefits of a strong defense and private enterprise. A smaller footprint in foreign affairs is not by default a step toward weakness.

I am not convinced that a Ron Paul 3rd party bit would hurt the GOP any more than it would hurt Obama/Democrats. At least 50% of Ron Paul's support is not coming from actual Republicans anyway. Here is the thing with the RP cult, most of them are ONLY interested in voting for RP. Period. There is sizable crowd of drug addled, peacenik college kids that are supporting Paul, but do not identify as Republicans. When Paul fails to win the nomination, he is not going to endorse the actual GOP nominee anyway. My guess is half or more of his supporters, being young hippie/hipster types will end up voting for Obama rather than the Republican nominee. All the paulbots I knew in 2008 pretty much ended up voting for Obama. The real libertarians that actually understand his message will vote for the Libertarian party candidate - but that is a minority of his supporters.

Reading my post again are ya :-)...

Yes, Pro legal Pot Stoners, Anti-War-er's, Isolationist and now Anti Semites.

Sounds like the Obamatons.

BTW It will be a double wammy around the margins when Nader steps in a skims some more cream off the top for Obama...

I still say by the time Nov rolls around it will be a 5 person race if not 6...

Ditto on your last paragraph.

Leni