Thursday, January 12, 2012

Who Supports Ron Paul?

Jonathan S. Tobin takes a somewhat negative view of the Ron Paul phenomenon in this article for Commentary. He sees much of the Paul support coming from Democrats and apolitical kids who want pot legalized.

Tobin believes that Paul's strong showing in IA and NH is a result of those contests being "open." That is, being contests where Democrats or independents may choose to show up and vote in the GOP primary. He notes that most states remaining are "closed," only registered Republicans may vote in their primaries.

It is difficult to imagine many serious Republicans voting for Paul, most of his votes must come from elsewhere. Tobin may have identified the source; we will learn the answer in the next couple of months.