My points are:
1. Times have changed
2. In general, leaving out the loonier non-foreign involvement stuff, Paul is a staunch Constitutionalist
3. Most of the other "viable" (R) candidates are pure RINOs and will simply keep us moving down the slippery slopes of .gov control, reduced freedoms and liberties, ruling by dictate, bad economy, et al.
4. This country is well and truly effed by bho and his predecessors and desperately needs cleaning out, much like horse stables
5. What do we have to lose, given #3?
Path,
I agree that going with Paul we really can't do worse than what we have now. As far as his points of views on monetary policy and foreign policy, I think even he knows that he will not get rid of the Federal Reserve, implement a complete transformation back to a gold standard, and pull all troops from overseas.
The hardest of all, the Fed, has to be changed by congress; and there is very little support for that. As for the gold standard, he knows there is not enough gold to cover all the money in circulation. He knows he would have to devalue the dollar so much that it would cause hyperinflation or he would have destroy so much of it that it would create a depression. The solution is a gradual, incremental, destruction of the currency in circulation - this will take years to do.
And as far as pulling troops overseas, I think he realizes that he can't take them out everywhere. I heard him concede that point in a radio interview where he mentioned maintaining a presence in the middle east with carrier battle groups. I think this makes sense until we can get our energy independence established - again this will take years to implement.
Tom is wrong. The joke is not about Ron Paul but is about the conservative base being consistently fooled into voting for candidates who do not really support conservative, constitutional values. If Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney are elected, then this country will deserve what it voted for.
If by some chance Ron Paul was elected, I think he would not survive long. I think he would be assassinated within 2 years. He is that dangerous to the establishment.