Notwithstanding my own hopes, it’s fairly clear that Ron Paul finished well behind the most optimistic predictions in the New Hampshire Primary.
To sum it up, he finished in 5th place. Behind Mike Huckabeee and Rudy Giuliani. In a state that was the focus of the Free State Project.
So, what happened ? And is there really any future for this campaign ?
Frankly, I don’t think so.
The future of the “campaign” will lie in libertarians and true conservatives in that will anyone take up the mantle of limited government, liberty and freedom that has been raised by Ron Paul?
I don’t think anyone had rose colored glasses shaded enough to think a nomination was possible, but are excited that someone, anyone, has once again tried to show Republicans what they traditionally stood for.
Yet, I fear that a “terror warrior” contest will begin between McCain, Romney and Benito to see who can get us into the most wars and limit our civil liberties the most…for our own good of course.
Cato,
I agree that the best thing that could come out of this is an active movement for liberty. Whether that will happen is a question yet to be answered.
One point though:
On this I have to disagree. There have been plenty of Paulites that I’ve run into here and elsewhere online who believed, despite clear evidence to the contrary, that all the polls were wrong and Ron Paul would win the nomination. And the guys over at Lew Rockwell.com all said the same thing. Anyone who tried to point out why they were wrong was denounced as a neo-con traitor.