Ron Paul THEATRICALLY fumbled the predictable Newsletter challenge leading up to Iowa, then skedaddled to Lake Jackson on the cusp of the Caucuses...when Santorum-style retail politics might REALLY have paid off. Tho devoted volunteers had been working their asses off in Iowa since the LAST caucuses, Ron Paul simply WENT HOME.
The eleventh-hour directive to NOT "watch the vote"? Puh-leez. It's been COUNT CHAOS ever since.
Setting aside who believed what COULD/WOULD/SHOULD happen, do you believe Ron Paul ever WANTED to win?
Yes, I KNOW Reluctant Leaders are WANTED. But there is a point at which the Reluctant Leader must say "oh, alright" and MEAN IT...or pushing him is a waste of scarce resources.
Gotta love all the people chiming in now that he is just one man, after it was previously verboten to suggest his fallibility. That said, the Presidency is NOT just one office. I don't give a fuck HOW many liberty-friendly "dog catchers on up" are positioned incrementally. Some of them will be Posers, some will be corrupted, some will lose reelection. Even if they are all "pure" and remain so (lol), the Presidency MATTERS. A lot.
You can get more and more and more and more Employees onto the same page, but the Corner Offices still run the show. If more and more and more and more Employees get onto a page that is at variance with Management, Management is still the Boss. Underlings may or may not prevail by orchestrated showdown/strike, but the "simple" fact of Employees agreeing with one another means diddly-squat in the Ivory Towers.