a very good piece
Unfortunately, as you have noted, far too many are wasting their time with media and vote fraud allegations and I just don't see that changing. Also, as I found out when I was very heavily involved in 2007/08, only a small fraction of the 'ron paul supporters' will actually do hard work - door to door or similar. A marginally higher number will do sign waves which are pretty useless, especially this cycle.
I worry that phone from home can go from being helpful to being a disaster if not managed properly. Just look at your own personal experience. How many times do you like to hear from a campaign? I'd say that after 2x you are gonna get annoyed. And of course some thought has to go into who to call in the first place. I also think that door to door has better results but the problem is the time involved and the lack of volunteers to put boots on the ground.
The one assumption you make which I think may not turn out is that if Santorum and Gingrich drop out that RP will pick up all or even most of their votes. Besides those who will still vote eventhough they have dropped out, I just don't see Santorum voters going to RP. Most will go Romney or stay home. I think we have a better chance of getting some of Newt's supporters, but again not the lion share. I think we can be candid between ourselves and agree that the big sticking point is foreign policy. Newt is inching towards leave Afghanistan, but not for RP reasons. And I think he still wants to hammer Iran. I personally think Israel may do something in May, hopefully what ever fiasco they start would not be too late to swing people our way.
I do agree that anythign can happen at the convention, but as you have said it better include winning some big ones near the end and doing better than we have so far in the rest. It will be too unpalatable to many to vote for a candidate who has consistently come in third or fourth. Again, being honest - caucuses don't represent a true view of the population in a given state. For that reason the primary states are going to weigh far heavier. In effect we are asking delegates to disenfranchise voters in early(ier) states. There better be a very good and acceptable reason for them to do this (other than our own personal feelings.)