Dated Ron Paul, Married Mark Sanford?

[bobbyw24]

http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/03/dated_paul_married_sanford.php

Dated Paul, Married Sanford?

16 Mar 2009 08:53 pm
Michael Brendan Dougherty's profile of Mark Sanford makes for interesting reading; so do the follow-ups from Reihan (here and here) and Larison. You can imagine a very ideologically interesting Republican primary in which a figure like Sanford came on strong as a more mainstream version of Ron Paul (small-government rigor plus foreign-policy noninterventionism, minus the nutty-uncle factor), while someone like, say, Jon Huntsman ended up representing the party's moderate wing. It could be a Goldwater-Rockefeller race for the new millenium - potentially disastrous for the party, sure, but potentially fruitful as well.

Then again, you could have imagined a very ideologically interesting Republican primary featuring a cast of characters as diverse as Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and John McCain - but instead, they mostly fell over one another trying to play a caricature of Ronald Reagan. The process of running for president isn't kind to ideological outliers (unless they're nothing-to-lose figures like Paul), which is why Mark Sanford, presidential candidate, might turn out to be a lot less interesting than the guy who shows up in Dougherty's profile.
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[ClayTrainor]

Interesting title but, Sanford doesn't even hold a candle to Paul.

[bobbyw24]

It should be interesting in 2012 to see how the nation views BHO at the time.

[Chieftain1776]

Just so people know Ross Douthat is a faux conservative that got promoted to the NYT Op Ed page. He's the co-author of Grand New Party which basically wants "Sam's Club Socialism (http://www.takimag.com/site/article/sams_club_socialism/)" and rails against small government throughout the book.

I only say this b/c there are a lot of beltway "conservatives" that will be hammering Sanford for his more libertarian approach but will guise it otherwise. He may not meet the Ron Paul purity test but he certainly is no friend of the beltway crowd.

Douthat does make a point about things "changing" in the course of the campaign which is why, although I'm a fan now, I don't think Ron Paul revolutionaries should jump in too early. He could very well pull an Obama by taking the base's money and running to the "center". Doesn't come off as that kind of guy but we'll see....