I am sad to say that Congressman Ron Paul is about to head back to Congress and step away from his Presidential aspirations. Even after raising tens of millions of dollars and acquiring many rabid fans, the delegate count just isn't high enough for him (less than ten versus several hundred for McCain gives you long odds). Now that we are steaming through February, primary season is looming in the Great state of Texas and Ron Paul ultimately wants to save his Congressional hide.
From The Politico:
Last night, the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman sent a message to his supporters signaling that he was scaling back his presidential bid.
The most telling passage:"I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen."
Same as Kucinich, Paul has seen a real primary threat emerge back home. In both cases -- and see my colleague Josh Kraushaar's piece as a primer -- the challengers have made the case that the local congressman is gallivanting around the country on a quixotic quest, has lost touch with the folks back home and has taken stances out of line with the district.
Ron Paul may not be a Don Quixote, but with his millions in campaign funds, it'll be interesting to see what he'll do with that cash. Running for reelection in his part of Texas only costs a fraction of what he's got.
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