"So... Still Against the Civil War."

David Weigel | April 1, 2007

That Ron Paul interview on Bill Maher's show has been thoroughly YouTubed, and it's... not very good. Maher sacked up to grill Paul on his less popular beliefs, which is admirable. But the lazy manner in which he does that and Paul's unwillingness to joke around with him leads to a waste of a six minute segment.

This is really strange. Obviously a sticky "you're so right, congressman!" interview would have been unwatchable. But compare this to Maher's soft-touch interview with Mike Huckabee, the Arkansas governor who's actually tied or behind Paul in the polls. "How's the campaign going?" "You are from Hope, Arkansas. No matter how good you are, what do you think the chances are that we'd have two presidents from Hope, Arkansas?" "In 2005 you said 'I think President Bush has done a pretty good job.' Do you still stand by that?" As a result, there are anti-drug war, anti-Iraq war HBO viewers who got a better first impression of Huckabee than of Ron Paul.