BRIAN DOHERTY WRITES that those old Ron Paul letters have nothing to do with the “Ron Paul Revolution.” But he adds:

Still, his campaign’s reaction to this has been politically disastrous and given the third-rail nature of accusations of racism, Ron Paul’s campaign was likely fatally wounded today, regardless of the final vote totals in New Hampshire. Paul would have done better to more thoroughly explain how it happened, how it was dealt with at the time, and address how he as a politician would deal with any matters involving race–ideally, a fervent defense of equality under the law for all. If the ghostwriter has any respect for Paul and hope for the political future of the anti-state, anti-war movement that has coalesced around him, he’d do well to step forward and take responsibility.

That would be an interesting story. But there’s this comment:

Here’s my take: I’ll accept for the sake of argument the notion that he didn’t know that this stuff was in the newsletter. But I can’t imagine a responsible person permitting a publication under his name without reviewing it occasionally. I also can’t imagine a responsible person permitting a publication under his name without vetting the editor/publisher sufficiently to keep out the sort of whackjobs who would publish stuff like this. How can you expect anyone so careless with his own “brand” to be any more careful with the country’s “brand”?

Indeed.

UPDATE: Well, this bit suggests either that Ron Paul wrote this, or wanted people to think he did.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ouch: “In the end, Ron Paul was a cult of personality without the personality.”

Yeah, though I saw that as a positive, kinda.

MORE: A defense of Ron Paul, from Stephen Green.