Fox News Decision Benefits Paul

When we first learned that Fox News was planning on having a forum in NH that excluded Ron Paul, I said that I thought the decision would only wind up benefiting Ron Paul. It gives Paul a legitimate claim to the idea that the party establishment is trying to censor him and gives him nothing but positive press. Meanwhile, with debate fatigue setting in, I doubt that the forum will have much substantive effect on the primary vote.

Today it looks like I was right, as the New Hampshire Republican Party has withdrawn as a co-sponsor of the event. Fox News' decision to exclude Paul is doing more in the way of garnering sympathy for Paul than it could ever do by way of removing him from the minds of voters. It's not as if people in NH don't realize Paul is still running for President; nor do they fail to understand his platform, which is pretty easy to understand.

This issue isn't going to suddenly create a massive influx of new Paul supporters in New Hampshire; but what it will do is motivate some of the more lukewarm Paul supporters to get to the polls. And it sure as hell isn't going to do much by way of getting lukewarm Paul supporters to switch candidates.