Romney/Paul Rumors

Ron Paul is running the above add in Michigan blasting Rick Santorum as a "fake conservative" and the internets are abloom with speculation that Ron Paul is providing secret aid to the Romney campaign.

And frankly, the Romney campaign could use all the help it can get; the party he is hoping to lead to victory in November is demoralized, his campaign is spending more money than it's bringing in, and he's getting trounced in the polls by a sweater-vest wielding ass-hat whose name is synonymous with dirty butt-sex. To top it off poor Mittens has to go to Michigan and explain to the good people of Detroit that the Federal bailout of the auto industry was a Very Bad Idea even though the people of Michigan support it, Clint Eastwood supports it, and Mitten's himself very probably secretly supports it but doesn't have the balls to say so (i don't have anything to back that up, but at this point if Mitten's says something we all kind of assume he believes the opposite).

And Mitten's could certainly benefit from an alliance with the good doctor. He has to know that his three biggest vulnerabilities are his utter lack of enthusiasm from the base, the general disregard independents have for his flip-flopping, and his inability to go negative without hurting his already limited favorability numbers. Whereas Ron Paul's base is almost fanatically devoted to the candidate and his message, independent voters seem to regard the congressmen with the affection usually reserved for adorably curmudgeony old uncles, and Ron Paul's campaign has a history of effectively attacking their opponents without dinging the congressmen's numbers.

So what would be in such an alliance for Ron Paul? Well, while strictly speaking it isn't impossible for Ron Paul to capture his party's nomination (in a world where carpenters rise from the dead, anything is possible), it is very very very unlikely the Republicans will make him their standard bearer. But i'm not sure President of the United States is really a job Ron Paul wants. What Paul wants is influence. He wants enough delegates at the Republican convention to enshrine liberty, nonintervention, and fiscal responsibility within the Republican Party Platform. An alliance with Mitt could give him a seat at the table, a chance to shape policy, and maybe a cabinet position or a slot on the ticket for himself or his son, Rand. I don't know this for sure (despite my passionate and burning love for the good congressmen, he doesn't include me in any high level stratigic conversations) but my impression is that Ron Paul and his campaign are playing a long game, they are looking past this november to 2016 with an eye to shifting The United States off it's decades long course of decline.