Ron Paul is not an ideal libertarian candidate. He is a politician that is deeply flawed, both in his expressed principles and beliefs, as well as in his actions and political strategy (inertness in the face of racist use of newsletter). Simply put, he is a politician. That being said, I do believe that a Ron Paul nomination could be an important step in the right direction and represent a hopeful potential for progress in "our" two-party majoritarian system. It would indicate a willingness of the "GOP" to get in bed with ideas that are anti-war and anti-prohibitionist (i.e., against the drug war). If such a nomination were to shift the baseline on these issues within the republican party, it seems this would be a very good thing indeed.
This is important because I believe a Ron Paul presidency would not be helpful for a libertarian movement and/or a libertarian shift in political philosophy. But this is not the place to discuss my intuitions on this issue, so I will put that off for another time.
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