Ron Paul Now Doesn't Want to Talk to Reporters About Anything

Despite the proliferation of headlines bearing his name and past anxiety over being ignored, Ron Paul is now shying away from the television cameras and, well, the media in general. Politico's Keach Hagey and James Hohmann hypothesize that the congressman's fairly recent step back from the mainstream media's spotlight might have something to do with that CNN interview about the racist newsletters bearing his signature:

It’s been hard to turn on cable TV lately without catching an interview with one of his competitors, yet Paul himself has been noticeably absent.

Until booking a Friday night interview with Bloomberg TV, he had not done a single national media interview all week — a sudden drop-off that followed a string of testy interviews last week, during which CNN and Fox reporters probed him on his knowledge of the decades-old newsletters’ content. During one exchange, he appeared so frustrated with questioning by CNN’s Gloria Borger that he removed his microphone and walked away. His campaign contends the interview was simply over.

Indeed, Ron Paul's dealt with the downside of his recent stint in the media spotlight lately. The Atlantic Wire's own Elspeth Reeve wrote last week that, "Like every other serious candidate, Paul has to suffer through people digging up every weird in his past." And the obvious solution to that problem, some might say, would be to avoid the suffering by not granting any interviews.

For the record, however, Ron Paul's campaign contends that the relative scarcity of Paul's on camera appearances has everything to do with the holidays. "We have had many requests," Paul campaign chairman Jesse Benton told Politico, "but Dr. Paul’s priority has been spending time with his family over Christmas and talking to Iowa and New Hampshire voters and press." No word yet from the Ron Paul army.

Update (4:57 p.m.): Ron Paul's campaign is now advertising three cable news appearances -- one with ABC's Jake Tapper, one with CNN's Candy Crowley and one with Fox News's Chris Wallace -- on Sunday, January 1. It's unclear when these were scheduled, but Paul's campaign listed the details of Pauls' New Year's Day press blitz on Saturday.