I don’t agree with everything said in this story, but it does a pretty good job of putting the long term revolutionary aspects of Ron Paul’s campaign into proper context. As I’ve said before, when the 2012 elections are over, candidates like Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum will be nothing more than asterisks in the history books, while Ron Paul will remain the most important political figure of our era. Reports CBS News:

As Paul’s team will openly admit, his presidential run has doubled as an effort to advance the Libertarian movement. And on that measure, there are reasons to already view it as a success.

Start with the vote totals… Paul has consistently won more votes in the 2012 cycle than he did in his presidential run four years ago. In Ohio, he went from 49,027 votes in 2008 to 111,238 votes in 2012; in Michigan, he went from 54,434 votes four years ago to 115,712 votes in this cycle. He more than quadrupled his vote total South Carolina, tripled it in New Hampshire and doubled it in Georgia.