The Peacenik Republican

So far in the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has more than doubled the number of votes he received in Iowa in 2008, more than tripled his vote count in New Hampshire, and nearly quintupled his vote count in South Carolina.

To achive this, the libertarian-leaning Paul has had to become more slick and political in his campaigning, while retaining credibility by sticking to his specific plan to chop federal spending by $1 trillion dollars. Despite the disappointment many felt about Paul’s third-place finish in Iowa, and Paul's current last-place polling in Florida, Paul has said he's not going anywhere.

The strength of his campaign has forced the other candidates into humiliating and unpersuasive attempts to parrot Paul’s economic policies, his warnings on unsustainable government spending, and particularly his attempt to end the reign of the Federal Reserve. But the policy area in which Paul seems to have the most trouble influencing the conversation is on war and foreign policy, an area where Paul is a staunch anti-interventionist.