The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky isn't indifferent to the Ron Paul presidential candidacy, not by a long shot. Tomasky's opinion of Paul:
He is an unserious, extremist crank whose appeal among those who ought to know better is one of the bleakest facts of our bleak political life.Why is a small fraction of the electorate so committed to Ron Paul? Tomasky has an answer:
Some people take great comfort in backing candidates they know will never win—they prefer, on some deep level, to fall short and be angry about it. It encases their loserdom in a carapace of purity and righteousness.Loserdom encased in a carapace of purity and righteousness, that's nice imagery. It applies equally to the Lyndon LaRouche movement of some years back - an outsider who became a spokesman for other outsiders.
