Ron Paul’s Long Tail

TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. – Fate and luck put me in the same Tampa Bay area hotel as the Iowa delegation to the RNC. This morning, as I readied to leave, then realized my car’s battery was dead, then waited for AAA, then got ready to leave again, I saw the Ron Paul diehards for the last bittersweet time. We hung out and drank decent coffee in the hotel. They swapped stories of MSM stories that failed to mention what happened to the Paul delegates. This video, from the outspokenly libertarian Ohio reporter Ben Swann, came up again and again. After the Brian Williams interview, it might be the most compelling interaction between the candidates and the press all week. The ever-vital “narrative” has moved right on from the Paulian rebellion. But these people are still around. They chanted “Paul ‘16!” when Rand Paul took his consolation lap on the convention stage. They remain committed to taking over state parties and nominating candidates approved by Ron Paul and by pro-Paul PACs. If the Paulians did not win in Tampa, well, we never expected them too. But they never folded, either.