Ron Paul Loves the Markets, but It’s Unrequited Love

Add to that list of people who don’t respect Ron Paul enough: People spending real money to bet on the next GOP nomination. At InTrade, the candidates seen as most likely to win the nod are, in order: Perry, Romney, Huntsman, Bachmann, Paul, Gingrich, Cain, Johnson, Santorum, McCotter, and (drum roll) Roemer. And Sarah Palin does better than all of them, minus that top three.
I’ll give the invisible hand a thumbs up. Maybe the InTraders are just reading Mark Halperin and agreeing with him (ignore the part where Halperin says Pawlenty has 5 to 1 odds of winning), but they’re smarter than the national polls! Huntsman’s crazy idea that he can win New Hampshire on the strength of independent voters and Democratic voters looks less crazy as Rick Perry plays there, raising the specter of a run for the conservative base and a winner pulling it off with less than 33 percent of the vote. (It’s still a little crazy.) Bachmann, who usually polls third, has no path to victory outside of Iowa. And Paul can do twice as good as he did in 2008 without coming close to winning.