Writes Michael J. Mishak in the Detroit News:

LAS VEGAS — The punk-band members, with spiked hair, tattooed arms and piercings, stood with a crowd of more than 300 and cheered at the rock star on stage, especially when he called for abolishing the Federal Reserve — you know, the banking system that for nearly a century has helped stabilize the U.S. economy, give or take a Great Depression.
Presidential candidate Ron Paul didn’t stop with the Fed. The devout and suddenly popular libertarian-running-as-a-Republican also wants to repeal the Patriot Act. (More cheering.) And the IRS and NAFTA-like trade deals. (Loud applause.) And bring home American troops, all of them, from Iraq and from every last spot on the globe. (Standing ovation.) And that national ID card, forget about it.
What the crowd heard was the testimony of a carved-in-granite libertarian who disdains the a la carte politics and deal-making of mainstream candidates, a physician whose political beliefs exist at that whiplash point on the political spectrum where the far right meets the far left.
Abolish the IRS, the Fed, the Patriot Act? Is that libertarian or a lefty anarchist?
The crowds he’s drawing across the country are often an unusual mix of 20- and 30-something lefties and righties. Some are drawn to his beliefs. But many said that they admire him most for sticking to a clear set of principles, even if they disagree on some issues.
“He’s consistent,” said Jennifer Reilly, a 23-year-old student at the College of Southern Nevada who attended a recent rally here. “I actually believe everything he says.”
Thus Paul has become the early surprise of the 2008 campaign. (Thanks to Charles Everett.)

Read the rest.