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Ron Paul: Now the Anti-Romney

I’m sitting here listening to Romney’s New Hampshire victory speech, and thinking it sounds like a Republican Convention address. “And he apologizes for America,” Romney says, of Obmaa. “I will never apologize for the greatest nation in the history of the earth.” That cheap lie again. What, there wasn’t a flag factory for him to […]

I’m sitting here listening to Romney’s New Hampshire victory speech, and thinking it sounds like a Republican Convention address.

“And he apologizes for America,” Romney says, of Obmaa. “I will never apologize for the greatest nation in the history of the earth.”

That cheap lie again. What, there wasn’t a flag factory for him to give this speech in tonight?

That speech makes me very glad that Ron Paul came in second tonight. Rick Santorum is not going to be the anti-Romney. Gingrich is way back in the pack. For all the time Huntsman spent in NH, he had to do better than third. He says he’s going on to South Carolina. Crickets.

“We’re the only ones really in the race with him,” Ron Paul just told CNN, of Romney. I’d say that’s true — which is good news for Romney, because the only real mainstream threats he faced were from Gingrich and Santorum. But it’s bad news for him too, because Paul shows clear and significant strength. Paul also deflected Dana Bash’s question about a third party run — and if so, he’ll bleed away a lot of the passionate conservative vote from the unpopular Romney. Paul looks to be setting himself up to be Ross Perot ’92 — although, I do seem to recall that Clinton took an equal amount of votes away from Clinton, as Paul would no doubt do from Obama.

Ron Paul speaking momentarily…

UPDATE: Ron Paul, the happy warrior, poking fun at people who call him and his supporters “dangerous:

“They’re telling the truth: we are a danger to the status quo in this country.”

I guessed that this economic crisis was going to bring some kind of (relatively) radical figure into presidential politics. I did not imagine it would be Ron Paul. If this were a Democratic primary, and Paul were running, it would be really interesting to see if he would be drawing the same kind of votes. I kind of think he might be.

Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate saying that it’s time for America to stop being the policeman of the world, and denouncing “the military-industrial complex.” Paul’s speech is kind of rambly, but judging by the line graph on the CNN South Carolina Republican focus group, he’s really connecting. None of this is new from Paul, but he seems more fired up tonight than he has. This man does well in South Carolina, and Romney’s got a real race on his hands.

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