Gold Otaku

Joel Stein has just published a profile of the Ron Paul campaign in Time. Here's my favorite quote from it:

"He's about something that American nerd culture can get on board with: really knowing one subject and going all out on it," says Ben Darrington, a Ron Paul supporter at Yale. "For some people, it's Star Wars. For some people, it's Japanese cartoons. For Ron Paul, it's free-market commodity money."

Stein quotes Frank Luntz as well, and while Luntz's comments aren't as entertaining as Darrington's they may be more telling. Luntz is the unreliable pollster/pundit who hosts those pointless post-debate focus groups on TV. In a few words, he sums up exactly what the Republican gatekeepers think of the Ron Paul movement:

"His supporters are the equivalent of crabgrass," says GOP consultant Frank Luntz. "It's not the grass you want, and it spreads faster than the real stuff. They just like him because he's the most anti-Establishment of all the candidates, the most likely to look at the camera during the debates and say, 'Hey, Washington, f____ you.'"

I don't know what Luntz means by "the real stuff." I have a horrible suspicion that he's thinking of his focus groups.