Ron Paul 2008: now with 73% less racist bile

Obviously, this does not come as the horrifying shock that it did for those who were more supportive of Ron Paul's candidacy. At least to judge from the commenters who show up here, Ron Paul's primary appeal is "The 19th century: now with iPods and better health care!" So it's not exactly a stunning surprise to discover that his newsletter struck some of those notes in social chords as well.

For the record, I doubt that Ron Paul is the virulent racist who penned these little treasures. But who cares? At best, he is the kind of guy who maybe wouldn't say these things himself, but finds himself, half-ashamedly, nodding along. What else are we to infer from the fact that he allowed this garbage to be published under his own name--not once, which could be written off as a horrifying editorial oversight, but over and over? If Nick Gillespie had published an issue of Reason with a feature article by Tom Metzger on the international Jewish conspiracy would his staff be saying "Well, he didn't write it"? More to the point, would they have extended a similarly generous benefit of the doubt to, say, Mike Huckabee?

Update Okay, I guess there's another explanation: Ron Paul is the kind of guy who would publish a newsletter under his name, but never, ever, read it. I'm not sure why this is supposed to reflect better on him.