“I feel about Ron Paul the way I felt about Ronald Reagan.”

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/ron_pauls_kalispell_supporters_growing_fast/1144/

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Make no mistake. This was not some fringe meeting of Flathead anti-government, ultra-right wing, crusty old dudes. The crowd included men in their 20s with ponytails and goatees, young mothers bouncing babies on their hips, a leader of the Flathead Valley Community College Republicans, and a state senator.

“There’s a malaise across the country; people are fed up with politics, they don’t trust the government,” said Sen. Aubyn Curtiss, R-Fortine, attending a Ron Paul meeting for the first time. “I feel about Ron Paul the way I felt about Ronald Reagan.”

The difference between Paul and Reagan, of course, is that Paul is – at this early stage – unlikely to nab the GOP nomination, a point his fans in Kalispell are unwilling to concede. Sitting after the meeting, Curtiss pondered that for a moment, and the effort she once expended in her prior position as state party chair, getting constituents behind the frontrunner candidate.

“For years, we’ve said ‘You have to support so-and-so, because so-and-so could win,’” she said. “I wonder, I think it might be time to rethink that.” Referring to current GOP presidential frontrunners, Curtiss was unimpressed with what she sees as a dearth of ideas.

“If a candidate is holding himself up as the only one who can beat Hillary (Clinton) within the party, then they don’t have much to offer,” she added. “That’s pretty lame.”