Why the front page attacks on Paul here are counterproductive [POLL]

Paul, who is the HIGHEST FUNDRAISER on the Republican side in the 4th quarter, and clearly has the most fervent and motivated support on that side as well, is a boon to democrats.

And we may see the payoff for us in only 2 days.

Bowers gets rightto the point.

Republians
Huckabee: 32 (29)
Romney: 26 (24)
McCain: 13 (7)
Paul: 9 (7)
Thompson: 9 (9)
Giuliani: 5 (13)
Unsure: 4 (4)

Interesting stuff here, too. Huckabee hangs on to his lead, but not by much. Remember that if Romney wins Iowa, he probably sweeps to the nomination. Second, while McCain has moved into third, I now think he is threatened by Ron Paul. Smooth move Fox: leave the guy who will finish at least fourth out of the debate altogether.

Looks like Huckabee versus Romney for first, and McCain versus Paul for third. McCain will almost certainly take third, but hey, here's to hoping. If Paul can beat McCain in Iowa, then the McCain threat is eliminated once and for all. I never thought I would say this, but go Ron Paul!

Not only has Paul helped our side out by showing how ridiculous neoconservative foreign policy is, how unconstitutional the president's actions have been, how stupid arguments like "They just hate us for our freedoms" (Giuliani), "We should double Guantanamo, and I'll consult my lawyers about bombing Iran" (Romney), "if you are against the Iraq war, you are a Hitler appeaser" (McCain), "Me. Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ. Me." (Huckabee), but Paul's candidacy has made it almost impossible for the 25-33% of Republicans who are against the Iraq war to be happy about who will eventually be their party's nominee in the fall, even if they don't support Paul for other reasons.

But the biggest boon that Paul's candidacy may bring us is fatally wounding some of the most dangerous Republicans in the general election.  Right now, almost all of the GOP's flawed 5 (Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee, Thompson, and McCain) is in danger of losing to Paul in one of the first two contests.

Paul can finish 3rd and beat McCain (probably the strongest GOPer for the general), Thompson, and Giuliani in Iowa.  Regardless of Giuliani's Florida strategy, finishing 6th and behind Paul in Iowa will be a major embarrassment for him.  He's dropping like a stone in NH, already pulling back, and could finish behind Paul in NH as well.  McCain would be in serious trouble as well heading into NH if he loses to Paul in Iowa.  In 2000, McCain was polling 14% in Iowa and ended up getting only 5% to caucus for him.  

Paul can finish ahead of Huckabee in NH as well.  He's only a couple points behind Huckabee in NH right now, and if Paul gets 3rd (a big win for him) and Huckabee gets 2nd in Iowa (a loss for him) Paul can easily jump Huckabee in NH.  Only Romney right now is safe from being mortally wounded by Paul in one of the first 2 primaries.  Of course Romney has a 2 front war with Huckabee in Iowa and McCain in NH and he's the weakest as far as polls show against any of the big 3 on our side if he makes it to the general.  Thompson could lose to Paul in both Iowa and NH.

This is why FOX is trying to exclude Ron Paul from a NH forum on Sunday.  His message is hurting them badly among independents, and he's obviously too extreme and fringe to ever get on the GOP ticket.

With 19 million+ in the bank, Paul is staying in to Super Tuesday no matter what.  A dream scenario for us would be for him to go into the convention with a sizeable minority of delegates ready to raise hell, and none of the flawed 5 having a majority of delegates.  

Now, I thought the point of this site was helping to elect democrats and progressives.  We should be cheering on Paul wrecking the chances of the flawed 5, not helping out FOX news and the GOP establishment by attacking him.  If Kucinich was the top democratic fundraiser in the 4th quarter and threatening to mortally wound Clinton, Edwards, and Obama, the GOP blogosphere would be laughing and cheering.

UPDATED:

John Aravosis wonders aloud about the frontpage stuff as well:

Markos is not happy with Ron Paul

I'm kind of looking forward to Ron Paul being the "what's that idiot's name, the enviro Green Party guy who lost us the election twice, oh yeah, Ralph Traitor Nader" of the Republican party.