I'd Rather Be Blogging...

...but it's the end of the school year, and you know how it is. And it's not just the end of the year, but also of my time on campus at Michigan State, so I have lots of people to catch up with, stuff to do, and a thesis to write. *sigh*

Anyway, I thought I'd at least offer up one post for the weekend. (There may be more, but I can't make guarantees.) And anyway, this is just a little too juicy.

Neil Stevens at Redstate.com reports that Ron Paul has proclaimed public support for...the John Birch Society. Yes, the Birchers, whose anti-Semitic and conspiracy-theorist ilk William F. Buckley unapologetically ejected from the conservative movement. Is this a big surprise? Not to those of us who understand where people like Dr. Paul come from. I can't say that his domestic policy of decreased spending and low taxes is unattractive, but it's the isolationism, the veiled anti-Semitism and white supremacism, the paranoia that should always tip you off. Endorsements from neo-Nazis and the KKK...the discovery of a long string of newsletters filled with racist rants...now, this endorsement of the JBS should be the final indication of who we're dealing with here. It's the same ugly paleo movement that produced Pat Buchanan's later presidential runs, David Duke and his trip to the Holocaust-denial conference in Tehran, and LewRockwell.com.

This says it best: A "Ron Paul for President" sticker on one of the bridges across the Red Cedar River, which bissects MSU's campus, was written on by a jokester: "LOL No."

Texas 14, Reason 0 (Also, Ohio 10, Normal People 0)

(Story here on the NYT blogs page.)

Oddball Republican primary candidate Ron Paul managed to do exactly what oddball candidates want to do: gain a small, determined group of followers, use media effectively to make that support look larger than it is, and try to pick up a protest vote against a controversial party front runner. And because they are the fantasist John Birch wing of the party ("wing" may be a generous term), the paranoia about the media not giving Paul enough air time kept them going through thin and very thin.

However, redistricting placed a region dominated by employees of NASA--which program he has consistently and vehemently opposed--in his district, and a serious primary challenger, Chris Peden, emerged in Texas's 14th District. Rank and file conservatives across the country, including TW2, casually hoped the good doctor might be knocked off before we reached the Republican convention. No such luck...the Paultists easily defeated Peden by something approaching 40 points. So the Crazy Right still may have a voice at the convention, sadly.

Notorious crazy person Dennis Kucinich also managed to hold off his own primary challenge against opponent Joe Cimperman in Ohio's 10th District. Having dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary race because of the challenger's success, a relieved Kucinich spoke the following words in his victory speech: "I am Napoleon. The aliens who have implanted a receiver in my brain told me this. Live long and prosper." (Not true.) He then abruptly walked off stage with the attendants his campaign pays to hold up his obligatory nutball candidate ears. (Mostly not true.)

At this point I would normally deride the state of Ohio for electing this guy, except that we are currently being governed by a Canadian beauty pageant winner named Jennifer.

Those Who Know Ron Paul Best...

...are currently not too enthralled with him, either, according to John Hinderaker of PowerLine Blog:

Paul is facing a strong challenge from an accountant and city councilman named Chris Peden, who currently leads Paul by around ten points in the polls. Roger Simon interviewed Peden and posted a podcast, along with an interesting summary of the interview. Not surprisingly, one difference between Peden and Paul is that Peden supports the administration's national defense efforts. Peden also questions the racially charged, and otherwise controversial, newsletters that Paul sponsored for many years.

His was an interesting voice for economic freedom in the presidential debates, but the nature of his support and his own debate rhetoric suggested that he represented an older and more insidious strain of the right wing. This article in the New Republic about his bigoted, paranoid newsletters over a period of a couple decades confirmed it, although many still clung desperately to another messianic figure. He'll stay in until the convention and his supporters will try to manipulate the delegate system to cast delegates pledged to other candidates for him, but he will quickly fade into obscurity--one hopes--after Minneapolis crowns the next bearer of the Republican mantle.