Why Is Everyone Ignoring Ron Paul?

Michele Bachmann has been riding high ever since she won her party’s straw poll in Iowa, but Ron Paul, who finished less than a percentage point behind her in a virtual tie, can’t seem to get anyone to pay attention to his campaign.

Politico’s Roger Simon, no fan of Paul’s, looked at the situation and decided “Ron Paul just got shafted.”

The congressman from Texas may be quirky, but is he more exotic than Bachmann, whose bizarre life has become the subject of titillation at Los Angeles dinner parties?

For whatever reason, Paul is getting the Ralph Nader treatment (Simon’s observation), while Bachmann dukes it out for front-runner status. — PZS

Roger Simon in Politico via PoliticalWire:

As The Daily Beast put it: “The new top tier of Bachmann, Perry, and Romney — created by Bachmann’s Iowa straw poll win, Perry’s entry into the race and Romney’s lead so far in many national and state polls — has unleashed torrents of talk about the reshaped race.”

Paul’s name was not mentioned in this piece nor in many others. A Wall Street Journal editorial Monday magnanimously granted Paul’s showing in the straw poll a parenthetical dismissal: “(Libertarian Ron Paul, who has no chance to win the nomination, finished a close second.)”

But “close” does not fully describe Paul’s second-place finish. Paul lost to Bachmann by nine-tenths of one percentage point, or 152 votes out of 16,892 cast.

Read more