The GOP has never been loaded with so many lunatic fringe right-wing crackpots, from Michelle Bachmann to Rick Perry to Newt Gingerich to Ron Paul...
The Libertarian Party is nearly as dysfunctional as the Tea Party, and even less effective.
The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971 (about 40 years ago). Here are their accomplishments:
Seats in the Senate
0 / 100
Seats in the House
0 / 435
Governorships
0 / 50
State Upper Houses
0 / 1,921
State Lower Houses
0 / 5,410
Best result in a Presidential Election (popular vote):
1980 Ed Clark 921,128 vote (1.1%)
The best Ron Paul could manage was 431,750 votes in 1988.
Bottom Line (Spoiler Alert): The Republican Party establishment is not going to allow Ron Paul to get the nomination.
Paul's followers like to whine about media silence for their cause/man, yet the Green Party which has only been around since 2001 in the US, has nearly as many elected officials as the Libertarian party, and fared far better in Presidential politics, yet gets far less mainstream media attention.
Ralph Nader received 2.8 million votes in the 2000 elections (giving the White House to Dubya (Bush Jr), whom was declared the winner over Gore by significantly less than the margin of votes won by Nader).
Personally, I hope that Ron Paul splits off and runs as a Libertarian or Independent in 2012, since he will syphon off some of the lunatic fringe votes from the GOP.
ADG