Run, Ron, run

My wife points out to me a link on the Marginal Revolution blog to one of those betting sites that has Ron Paul ahead of John McCain in probability of getting the R presidential nomination. Paul gets little touts on blogs and forums around the ether. His biggest attraction, I suspect, is that he is so unequivocally opposed to the Iraq adventure and proposes an immediate departure from that blighted place. Wife has a couple of interesting observations about Paul, first being that he has apparently attracted people starved for a pol who doesn't trim and weasel, people who might formerly have liked McCain for his blunt honesty, the honesty that McCain has since sacrificed to political expediency. The second is that there is a Forrest-Gumpish quality to Paul. I agree, with the proviso that Paul's how Gump would be were Gump intelligent. It's fun to see Paul on the late-night shows, all guileless and earnest. The hosts resist the temptation to rough him up, maybe sensing the puppy-kicking cruelty of it. A vote for Paul in the primary would be a perfect protest vote, but Texas doesn't allow registration as an Independent, and no matter how unhappy I might be with the Dems -- and damn am I unhappy with the Dems -- I just can't bring myself to walk around with a voter-registration card that says I'm a Republican.