Ross Douthat says that those who consider Ron Paul a madman and those who think of him as a prophet are probably both right. Excerpt:

There’s often a fine line between a madman and a prophet. Perhaps Paul has emerged as a teller of some important truths precisely because in many ways he’s still as far out there as ever.

The United States is living through an era of unprecedented elite failure, in which America’s public institutions are understandably distrusted and our leadership class is justifiably despised. Yet politicians of both parties are required, by the demands of partisanship, to embrace the convenient lie that our problem can be pinned exclusively on the other side’s elites — as though both liberals and conservatives hadn’t participated in the decisions that dug our current hole.

In this climate, it sometimes takes a fearless crank to expose realities that neither Republicans nor Democrats are particularly eager to acknowledge

I bet a surprising number of people who plan to vote for Ron Paul in the caucuses and primaries are not so much casting a vote for Paul as they are casting a vote of no confidence in the elites of the GOP (and of both parties).