Regarding ending the foreign involvement, you get that with Obama too, only at a much more reasonable level, not just shrugging your shoulders and walking away from genocide and nuclear ambitions like RP suggests.
And while I agree with this, I also know our involvement over there is only self-perpetuating our need to be there. And I know quite a few people who are in the same dilemma. Considering Paul has very high support from the military, this could play into an interesting election dynamic.
Yes, RP has a fervent base, but his problem is that that's all he has. He can not garner any support from other people, as has been painfully obvious over the last few months. Ever candidate turned out to be shit, and yet RP got nowhere as Republicans turned from one bizarre person to the next in hope for that anti-Romney.
The last few months have been primaries and caucuses, not a general election. For example, Mitt Romney has won the primaries by getting out and winning the rich vote. Voter turnout is extremely low for primaries, and it's generally been lower than in 2008 so far. Considering the working class, and a lot of people, don't get off work, or school, to vote in the primaries, whose gonna be able to vote more? The old, and the rich. It's sorta false to use the Republican primaries to actually gauge Ron Paul's support, when polls show him, in a general election, fairing quite well, and have for a while.
(the above is a reason I think Romney will, in the end, get beaten badly. I don't think he's nearly as strong as some people think he is)
Also, I find RP hasn't even remotely been scrutinized as much as the other candidates, simply because everybody agree he's not gonna be the candidate. If the Democratic war chest focused all its efforts on exposing the faults of RP, his current semi-benign image of the half-senile crazy neighbor would switch to "this guy set out to destroy the fabric of society".
I don't think that's true. He was getting a surge for a little bit, and the newsletters showed up, and some other baggage.
---
By the way, just so it's clear, I'd either vote for Obama, or not vote, if Paul was
somehow the candidate - but he won't be, so it's not really a real issue. Paul gets the attention of a lot of young people, and a lot of young liberals, and I think he splits the liberal vote up in some ways that might explain why he gets as much support, in current national polls, as Romney, the "front runner."