Whether liberals, conservatives and true populists like it or not (and many do not), the most likely outcome of the nominating process is a general-election battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. This opens up a humongous opening for Dr. Ron Paul to run as a third-party candidate.
It has been said of Mitt Romney that he has been a liberal, a moderate and a conservative. What will the next Mitt Romney be? Is there any serious conservative who trusts him? Of course not. If Ron Paul runs for president as a third-party candidate against Obama and Romney, he changes the entire dynamic of the campaign and totally transforms the national debate.
Ron Paul would pick up significant new support running against two establishment figures such as Obama and Romney. He would win support from a wide tier of voters who would see Romney as a distrusted, establishment, old-Wall Street and banking country-club Republican. Romney is exactly the kind of Republican the legitimate Tea Party voters, true conservatives and genuine libertarians oppose as the dominating influence on the Republican Party.
Imagine a general-election debate between Obama, Romney and Ron Paul! What a sight it would be to behold. Even with the media blackout against Ron Paul from many circles in the press, it would be impossible to deny him a chair in the presidential debate and would give Paul a huge platform to bring his ideas to the largest audience of the nation.
In my view the Republican Party is not the natural home for Ron Paul. He is far too independent, far too unfriendly to the corporatist wing of Republicans, far too libertarian and far too threatening to the real power that runs the Republican Party.
A Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul general election? Could happen. The debates would be worth the price of admission to the seventh game of the World Series. The Ron Paul news blackout would become a Ron Paul news surge!
