Ron Paul Out-Foxed

The conventional Beltway wisdom is that in the wake of Mike Huckabee's victory in Iowa, John McCain benefits. Adam Nagourney and Carl Hulse repeat that pre-cooked narrative, for those of you who just returned from Planet Tralfamador.

Why McCain? Because G.O.P. party leaders are so nervous about the Franken-gelical monster they've created. Sadly, No explains:

When the Republicans’ Christianist sect decided that it was sick and tired of being played for fools by its own party, its adherents decided to throw their support behind one of their own. And because this particular candidate doesn’t show the same enthusiasm for tax-cutting and war-mongering that Mitt Romney and Rudy Guliani do, the GOP establishment is freaking the hell out.

Things will be different in New Hampshire, we're told. In the Granite State, "there are far fewer of the evangelical conservatives who were key to Huckabee's Iowa victory."

Maybe so. But if the state's "Live Free Or Die" motto has any remaining resonance, Republicans looking for "change" -- which we are assured the Iowa caucuses signaled -- New Hampshire voters might want to take a look at candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex).

Paul drew 10% of the GOP caucus votes in Iowa, besting both Rudy Giullani and nearly beating Fred Thompson.* Last quarter, he pulled in more bucks than any GOP candidate.

He's a rock-ribbed libertarian, as his fascinating appearance last night on Bill Moyers Reports firmly establishes: a true "small government" conservative without all the biblical baggage and with a far firmer understanding of the Constitution.

So, you'd think Ron Paul would be a plausible heir to head the so-called "Reagan coalition." The thing is, Fox Cable News won't let Ron Paul debate in New Hampshire.

Giulliani and Thompson? They're gold with Fox News.

So can someone tell us, just when was Fox Cable News appointed Arbiter of GOP Political Correctness?
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* Iowa Caucus results.
HT to comment below.