Some Iowa Commentary...

...from Radley Balko:

Paul’s showing tonight wasn’t about racist newsletters, 9/11 trutherism, or take your pick of nutty Alex Jones conspiracy theories. Paul won strong support from young people, independents, and traditional conservatives tonight. Some like him on the drug war. Some like him for attempting to hold the Federal Reserve more transparent and accountable. (Paul would abolish it entirely, of course. But he’s shooting for transparent and accountable for now.) All of the aforementioned groups seem to like him on cleaving the debt and bringing U.S. troops home from overseas. The GOP establishment wants none of him. But now they have to deal with him, and they have to deal with his arguments. They can’t just assume perpetual war as a given. There’s a small but emerging faction in the party that finds the idea offensive. That’s largely because of Ron Paul. And that’s a healthy thing.

Paul has also pushed all of these issues beyond the GOP and into the national discussion. He deserves a ton of credit for that, too. I still prefer Gary Johnson to Paul, for reasons I’ll explain in the next few days. But you could make a strong argument that tonight’s results represent the most significant contribution a libertarian has ever made to presidential politics. Ron Paul is the man who made it. And both the country and libertarianism are better for it.