Ron Paul "Could Actually Win"

So says The Week.

The conventional wisdom is that Paul stands no legitimate chance, says Drew Ivers, a member of the state central committee of Iowa's Republican Party ... But 2012 could be different. Paul is "in the epicenter of the three or four or five the most critical and controversial issues in our nation today," including government spending, the war, and the financial crisis. "That's how snowballs develop...". 


Dr. Ivers (PhD plant geneticist with a second masters in theology) is Paul's Iowa campaign chairman. He is heavily credentialed in the  art of caucus politics. He helped handle some winning campaigns as well as losers (Robertson, Buchanan, and, in 2008, Dr. Paul.)  He was a founder of  the Iowa Christian Coalition, now known as Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition.

Make what you will of the relationship between  Paul and the evangelicals. I've hinted at my personal disappointment with the  new coziness, but it's rock-solid that without evangelical support in the Iowa GOP caucus process, a candidate goes nowhere.

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I hope Dr. Ivers'  enthusiasm for Paul will prove to be more than the rosiness mandatory for all political operatives about their candidates' chances,  that the new Iowa Paul movement can overcome the obstacles:

--Iowa has its full share of big-government conservatives, aka the WalMart vote.  These are Obama's bitter clingers who, at the same time, want their social security checks, their Medicare, and, crucially, their lucrative farm subsidies. Libertarian talk scares their pants off. These are the Gingrich/Trump/Romney voters.

-- While Iowans claim to be among the best educated people in the country,  the definition of that achievement can be loose. It's wonderful that Paul discusses the peril of fiat money and the tyranny of the Federal Reserve Board. That becomes politically pointless, however, when you can't find one in a dozen main-streeters capable of three coherent and unrehearsed minutes on either one.

--We're hearing things like Obama having no business in Libya because Qaddafi's oil goes to Europe, that is, gas prices in Strawberry Point are not affected by world oil supplies.


--The same principle applies to foreign policy. Can most of us find Syria on a map?  Explain the high price we pay for our support of the government of Israel?  Accept that there are limits to the morality and usefulness of American "power projection," even as we "support out troops?"

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All of which suggests to me that Paul's most formidable task is as much educational as political, and the remaining eight months offer precious little time to accomplish much enlightenment, meaning the Paul race must excel at manipulating symbols. And that is what got us in this mess in the first place.

Still, I wish him well, and I'll hustle support as best I can. We may be beyond the point at which we can vote our way out of our large problems, but we might as well try.

H/T Roberta