Idaho is Ron Paul Country! To an Extent!
I'll cop to forgetting, completely, that Idaho held its primaries yesterday, and I missed watching Ron Paul score 24 percent of the vote. (John McCain got 70 percent, with the rest going to some guy named Uncommitted, who's pissed that Hillary Clinton is trying to steal his Michigan delegates.) That was a disappointing result for some Paul backers, who thought the congressman might actually win the primary given the rock-bottom GOP enthusiasm and Paul's strength in northwest Idaho. But Paul's sleepy "stay on ballots but hardly spend any time campaigning, even though there's $4 million in the bank*" strategy limited the oomph.
Paul's continuing to rack up votes in thinly-attended local conventions, nailing down two delegates from Oregon. And he's neither going to endorse Bob Barr nor the Constitution Party candidate—maybe not even after the Republican convention wraps up. At issue is Paul's congressional seniority. He's worried, and rightfully so, about losing his precious banking committee seat if he hands over too much support to third party candidates who are trying to bleed the GOP.
* The Washington Post is making hay out of Paul's payments to his family members, which is neither 1) new to him nor 2) much different from what media darling Mike Huckabee did. The only scandals with Paul's war chest, to me, were the squandering on stupid TV ads and the current hoarding of funds even though, after May 6, only inexpensive states remained on the map.
