Tucker Carlson a Ron Paul Convert?

Tucker Carlson’s latest piece for The New Republic shows the renegade Republican candidate Ron Paul gaining currency among the party’s mainstream figures. Carlson explains his Road to Damascus-like conversion that occurred while traveling the campaign trail with Dr. Paul through Nevada:

The first time I heard Paul talk about monetary policy, I’d felt like a hostage, the only person in the room who didn’t buy into the program. Then, slowly, like so many hostages, I started to open my mind and listen. By the time we got to Reno, unfamiliar thoughts were beginning to occur: Why shouldn’t we worry about the soundness of the currency? What exactly is the dollar backed by anyway? And, if the gold standard is crazy, is it really any crazier than hedge funds? I’d become Patty Hearst, ready to take up arms for the cause, or at least call my accountant and tell him to buy Krugerrands. I looked over at Dennis and the girls. They looked like they might be having the same thoughts.

[...]

…There wasn’t much left to say, so Dennis and the girls and I left and went downtown to a casino for pancakes. There were no hard feelings. They wore their Ron Paul stickers all through breakfast. If I’d had one, I would have worn it too.

And Glenn Beck’s recent hour-long interview had a similarly welcoming view toward Paul’s seeming aberrations from the party’s mainstream:

What this means for Paul’s acceptability to mainstream conservatives is a little unclear to me. On the one hand, Paul’s recent fundraising successes could be showing him to be a more potent and popular candidate than once believed, and his supporters an untapped market that should be courted for ratings (or at least to avoid the hate mail spam for which Paul supporters are infamous). On the other hand, perhaps the timidity of the other candidates has led the pundits to be attracted to the commitment, passion, and philosophical vision of Paul’s campaign, qualities that haven’t been seen in the Republican party since the Reagan, or perhaps even Goldwater, days. Even in this latter case their support may be less-than-sincere on the policy level; nevertheless, the positive press from the talking heads with some degree of respect within mainstream conservative commentary is sure to help Paul in the primaries.

Tags: 2008, Election, Glenn Beck, Libertarians, politics, president, Republicans, Ron Paul, Tucker Carlson