Richard Spencer

May 07, 2008

This is very good news: Huckabee + Paul gets 20% in North Carolina; Huckabee + Paul + Romney gets 23% in Indiana. If you add in the “no preference” vote in NC, then the anti-McCain vote jumps up to 27%. Some of this might be a flailing protest vote—which isn’t a bad start in my opinion!—but then clearly there’s somewhere between 5-12% of Republican voters in states around the country who are firmly “Ron Paul Republicans.” Hucakbee, too, should be given his due for becoming the candidate for a lot of evangelicals. All of this makes Paul’s utterly dispiriting “winding down” youtube message seem even more strategically retarded. It’s great that Paul’s still on the ballot, but the fact is, the MSM is ignoring entirely the GOP “race,” if it is one. Thus the general pissed-off-ness of middle American conservatives lacks an outlet for expression—particularly after the leaders of the short-lived Talk Radio Rebellion have backed down (as we always knew they would). A Ron Paul third party that would generate even 5% in the general would make a statement; maybe the movement it generated would quickly burn out, much as the organizations birthed by the Reform Party runs of Perot and Buchanan are now small and diffuse, but it would still make people take notice. “Anybody but McCain—conservatives for Obama” is beginning to seem more and more attractive…