Dr. No Coverage

New Media grump Jon Friedman is busting campaign reporters for missing the story of Ron Paul.

[A]nyone who looked hard enough knew that there was more to Paul than an inability to amass delegates. Most of the media, turned off by his shrill libertarian leanings, missed the real news value of Paul's story -- namely, the Texas congressman's ability to connect intensely with voters. […]

But the hard-core loyalty of his backers remains one of the most newsworthy, if unwritten, stories of this presidential campaign.

I will one-up Friedman, with whom I usually disagree: It was Paul's ability to connect intensely with voters despite not being a very charismatic politician, nor having a particularly effective campaign team, that suggested there's something going on here and ya don't know what it is, etc.

Brian Doherty's February cover story on the rEVOLution here. Nick Gillespie and I named the Paul campaign as the only one in this election cycle that even hints at 21st century politics, in a Politics magazine story [pdf] from March. More reason Paul-ania here. (Friedman link via Romenesko.)