Why did Ron Paul lose?

I actually noticed a bit of this early on. There were no national ads being aired, and he did very little besides attend debates. The crazies that came out of the woodwork to his cause scared me, too (Netroots). These are the people who don’t understand economics or politics; they want marijuana and no taxes. While this worked to a certain degree, he still needed to appeal to the broad majority of voters, many of whom hold libertarian values, even if they don’t recognize them as such.

He only received 493 votes in my county. (Huckabee made a good showing at 3285, though.) There is a strong military (and defense-contracting) presence here and they were voting for job security, obviously.

I suspect that many of his supporters thought it was good enough to donate and spread the word rather than actually voting.

I also think Paul could have successfully supported the FairTax and garnered a lot more support. It was the biggest reason I liked Huckabee (that, and his playing of air-hockey on The Colbert Report).

Related posts:

1. They said they’d keep it up
2. strange days in this savage land
3. maybe… screw pragmatism?
4. Daily Links
5. Compromises, compromises, compromises… the word that makes US politics tick.