He's Bad, He's Nationwide

David Weigel | October 16, 2007

Patrick Ruffini has a fascinating breakdown of where Ron Paul's money is coming from.

This really is a Western movement, with some of the Northeast thrown in. Basically, these are the places where you would expect libertarians to be strong. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a data set this good about the state-by-state strength of libertarianism. And the data gets more reliable every day.

Indeed, it's amazing how closely this hews to everyone's expectations. Paul bombs in the South, the boneyard of non-Wallace/Thurmond third party movements. He cleans up in New Hampshire and the West. He does very well in the Beltway—the "belly of the beast," as one big Paul MeetUp group calls it.

Meanwhile, Eric Garris points out that Alan Keyes has half a million dollars of campaign debts and speculates that this is the reason for his universally ignored presidential bid. I agree, and I'd add that Keyes is a right-wing Ward Churchill, a disgraceful pseud who should be kept off the campaign trail whether it takes a fleet of cybernetic bouncers or a mere electrified fence.