A pair of nobodies running for president

Just a quick note: You will not want to miss Tomas Alex Tizon's profile of Ron Paul and Mike Gravel, the two presidential candidates--one a Republican, the other a Democrat--lodged at the bottom of the political polls and still making trouble for all the other mainstream candidates seeking to win the White House.

The Column One story is available now by clicking here and will appear on Page One of Wednesday's print editions.

Two old men in rubber shoes waging a political war to lead the free world with little money and just a band of fanatical fans. One has chronic back pain, the other a bad knee. Cantankerous. Ignored. And nothing so far has stopped either from their lonely, little-noticed journeys back and forth across the country.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[william henry childers]

Has "nobody" picked up $2.4 million worth of small donor support in Q2, a 400% - 500% increase over the previous quarter? Has "nobody" seen the number of viewers of his Google Town Hall appearance hit 60,000 within 4 days, compared to half that many for Clinton in 4 months? Did "nobody" inspire more than 1000 people to come to a forum in IA to which he was excluded, nearly doubling the number of attendees to the official meeting? Did "nobody" get invited to Spartanburg SC (where he was once banned by the GOP somebodies) to appear before a packed, cheering house? Does "nobody" get invited to appear on Stewart, Maher, Tucker, Cavuto, inter alia, interviewed by the SF Chronicle editors, get a 5000 word spread in the NY Times Sunday magazine? Does "nobody" have more traffic on the web at places like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, more independent - not official - campaign support websites and blogsites than any other candidate? Does "nobody" have more volunteers spending their own money (not counted by the FEC) & using their own time to paint posters, plant signs, buy billboard ads, distribute pamphlets, travel long distances to support "nobody"? Does "nobody" win by landslides on-line polls immediately after debates, among other on-line polls. BTW, who do you think is watching these so-called debates and discussing them via the 21st century MaBell medium, i.e., the net chats and blogs? It's not the geriatric pollster and pollsterees sitting by their cordless phones. In the primary and caucus selection, "nobody" is on the ballot. In Nov'08 "nobody" will be on the ballot. Look for his name. It is spelled L-I-B-E-R-T-Y. And he has two first names.

(Ans: Let's see you wouldn't mean Chris Dodd. You must be referring to Ron Paul, who's featured on Page 1 of Wednesday's print edition and on this website's politics page already. Thanks for reading. --AM)

[JP]

This is not journalism. This is political marginalizing disguised as op-ed. To say that Ron Paul, a true patriot and public servant, is nothing more than a thorn in the side of the "mainstream" candidates is an insult to many Americans who still believe in the rule of law.

(Ans: Right. Well, this blog has never called him a thorn in anybody's side. So you can direct that complaint elsewhere. We are an equal opportunity offender. It has noted RP's virtual invisibility in the polls, despite fervent fans like you. But that's how our democracy works; you work hard for him as long as he lasts. Good luck--AM)

[AM]

Note to Bill Chen:
Thanks for your long note. But this space is for comments on the blog. Your lengthy observations/complaints about LAT news coverage belong in a Letter to the Editor. letters@latimes.com
Thanks for reading.

[rob]

Paul did raise some salient points in the first Republican debates, and Giuliani singling him out for his opinion of Iraq and his neo-isolationist ideas only made him more popular. Plesae don't equate hime with Admiral Stockdale. If not a nominee, he could easily become another powerful issue icon, like Gore, Moore, Chomsky, Robertson, or Sheehan.