Ron Paul says GOP will be more open to libertarian-minded nominee in 2012

Paul argues that independents would be drawn to a libertarian-Republican candidate. “Not that I’m pumping my own campaign because I don’t have one, but I think somebody did a poll that showed that when it comes to independent voters and they put my name up against Obama’s, I can beat him by 18 percent. So I think the independents are much more open to fiscal responsibility and personal liberties and a different foreign policy,” he said.

Tom Jensen, the director of Public Policy Polling, said Paul is more popular with independent voters than he is with Republican primary voters. Jensen’s most recent national 2012 poll of Republicans show Paul only bringing in 6 percent of the vote, behind other potential Republican candidates Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich. “So if he really wants to make an imprint on the 2012 contest, it would be running as an independent rather than just going from state to state finishing fifth or sixth in Republican primaries,” he said.

And then there’s the media problem.

Shortly after his nomination as Republican candidate for the Senate in Kentucky, Rand Paul’s libertarian beliefs seemed to offend many in the national media when he criticized the Civil Rights Act for interfering with private businesses. Democrats have used the episode to try to paint libertarians as extreme, or racist. Angle, appearing to learn from Rand Paul’s experience, has largely ignored the national press, fighting the narrative that her beliefs are extreme too.

So how can libertarians fight the media narrative that they are too far out of the mainstream? Turn the question back around, Paul said. “So I would say that’s extreme? What’s extreme about a balanced budget and smaller government and a foreign policy that makes a lot more sense than policing the world? So I think they are the ones who are the extremists,” he said.

But not all media are dismissive to libertarianism, Paul noted, pointing out that judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News “now has a very libertarian TV show.”

As for what it would take to get him to run in 2012, Paul said it all depends on if the economy is still in shambles and troops are still bogged down in Afghanistan. He said he hopes he’s wrong, but thinks that will still be the case.

“I suspect the economic crisis is going to get a lot worse,” he said. “If it is, than the country becomes even more open to free-market alternatives. And I think that is going to stir my interest.”

E-mail Alex Pappas and follow him on Twitter