It will interesting to see how much support he ends up with. As more and more Republicans sour on the war - Paul may actually pick up a noticable amount of support. Plus - if he can get his message out on the limited budget he has (which is a big if), Paul will be able to pick up support from some old school (real) Republicans. His libertarian support will be solid - but small. A good performance by Paul could help move the process along of removing the hijackers from power in the Republican Party.
I remember watching a show following the last debate, I think it was Tucker Carlson's, where he compared the fiscal discipline of I think Tommy Thompson and what programs he would cut when asked to what Paul said afterwards. Thompson named some obscure program that Carlson had never heard of and Paul named whole departments (Education, Homeland Security, and another I can't remember). Carlson commented that Republicans circa mid-90s used to sound like Paul, but now the whole "less spending" thing seems to have been thrown out the window pretty much.
I don't know if the fiscal discipline folks in the Republican Party though really command much of an audience, i.e. small government to most Republicans means spend as much as you want but we want lower taxes.
The current base of the Republican Party is such an off the wall mix of odd birds. Paul adds interest to the GOP race in that it will give us a chance to see in clearer terms what the GOP base really is. Rudy also adds a different dimension to that race. At the end of this race, I suspect we will have it confirmed that the social conservatives (though I don't like to call them that) and those with very short term business interests really do run the GOP and that Ron Paul and fiscal conservatism don't have a place in the GOP any longer. But that isn't going to stop me from wishing him well as he tries to reclaim a piece of the GOP.
