"Ron Paul IS Electable" -My Latest Op Ed

It has nearly become a journalistic convention to editorialize alongside any reference to Texas congressman Ron Paul that the 2012 presidential candidate is considered by many to be unelectable. Or, that other than some interesting points of view and a curiously energized following, Ron Paul’s presidential candidacy is unserious, that the Republican Party’s constitutionalist– as Mitt Romney recently called Paul in a debate– has no viable path to the White House.

Just last month for example, iconic conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh made an appearance on Fox News Channel‘s On The Record with Greta van Sustren and said, “I think right now anybody other than Ron Paul could beat Obama if the election were tomorrow.” But this claim isn’t just being repeated by talk radio hosts who stand opposite of Ron Paul in the Republican Party’s internecine battle over principles and policy, it’s being repeated by presumably objective news anchors and writers– it’s showing up as a random aside in Associated Press reports, whose authors can’t seem to bear mentioning Ron Paul’s name without editorializing that the presidential hopeful is “often dismissed as unelectable by members of his own party.”

But is Ron Paul actually unelectable? Do the facts support that claim? Whether you agree with Ron Paul’s political views or not, whether you think he should be the Republican Party’s nominee or not, his actual electability as a presidential candidate is an entirely separate question...

Read my entire article at IVN.us.

Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
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