“If you’re in a campaign for only gaining power, that’s one thing. If you’re in a campaign to influence ideas and future of the country, the campaign is never over,” said Dr. Paul on CNN this morning.

This has been the mentality of the Campaign since day one: they were never running to win an election. Dr. Paul and the people he chose to lead the Campaign never conceived that they could “influence ideas” and win votes.

The few, feeble efforts made by the Campaign to win votes (e.g., the shirtless Mexican postcard sent out in Texas, the Tancredoeqsue “No student visas for illegal aliens” scare-tactics ad ran in Iowa) demonstrated the utter political cluelessness of those responsible.

We deserve candidates who are serious about winning–not for the sake of power, but in order to advocate, and maybe even implement, our ideals in the Congress and, some day, the White House.

Such a mindset is completely alien to those running this Campaign. Woe unto anyone who looks to them for leadership in the campaigns of the future. The first question we should ask any “Ron Paul Republican” is:

• Are you running to win (consistent with your principles)? Or are you just trying to make a point?
• Besides speaking out for freedom, what will you actually do for freedom if elected?
• What kind of leadership experience do you have?
• Why should we believe that you can distinguish between competence and incompetence in your decisions about whom to hire and fire?

We can all accept Ron Paul’s ideas as the “gold standard” for our future standard-bearers, while at the same time demanding more political savvy, seriousness and professionalism than has been exhibited by this campaign.

Ron Paul POST CA DEBATE Interview 1/30/08 - CNN.com Live after the jump…
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Mr. Namedropper Extraordinaire has a little problem with the “facts.”

–which means he fits right in with the neocon crowd because they think they can make it up as they go along.

Did I hear McCain say in response to Ron that Ike didn’t run on promising to get us out of Korea? Well, here’s a transcript of one of his campaign ads:

“‘Announcer: Eisenhower answers America.
“‘Man: General, the Democrats are telling me I never had it so good.
“‘Eisenhower: Can that be true when America is billions in debt, and prices have doubled and taxes break our backs, and we are still fighting in Korea. It’s tragic. And it’s time for a change.’”