Paul shouldn't have talked about his monetary policy so much. People got scared, they thought he was going to take away their social security pensions and any kind of welfare relief. How many people are dependent on some kind of government assistance? New Hampshire isn't a wealthy state. You're one check away from being dependent on welfare if you lose your job. NH is a depressed economy - many factories shut down in the 90s, it turned some places into ghost towns. Paul's talk about gold sounds like it's for wealthy people. I'm not rich, I'm not going to invest the little money I have in gold. He doesn't really sound like he has a plan. Just get rid of this and that and there will be miracles!!!!! Compared to facing starvation and homelessness because of losing your job, the Iraq war sounds like a very distant 2nd concern.
And the way he presents his libertarian message is all wrong - it puts people off. Get rid of the Dept of Education and the CIA and the FBI etc .. it's too much at once. People are so used to living with these things -- too much change is frightening.
Now that I think about it, it's no wonder it's "the young people" who have been his strongest followers - his message is very idealistic, when you're middle aged and have dependents, you want security more than anything - not stepping into completely unknown territory. Plus the recession is coming on us - free enterprise doesn't sound appealing during hard times. Paul should have tailored his message better.
He's had lots of opportunities to sell his message, but he missed most of them unfortunately.
