If Ron Paul is serious about his presidential candidacy, he should pull a Joe Lieberman and move to New Hampshire for a few months. It didn't work for Lieberman in 2004, but it would give Paul a chance to shock the nation.

There is no other state in the union where Paul could reach more voters in an electorate sympathetic to his libertarian message. In a presidential primary where independent voters matter, he is the Republican with the best shot at attracting them. And his supporters are so devoted they would flock to the state to help him, just like the hippies who got "clean for Gene" in 1968.

Never heard of Ron Paul? He's one of the candidates relegated to the far edge of the stage when Republicans debate. He's the one who really doesn't believe in nation-building, pork-barrel spending or fiscal irresponsibility. His voting record reflects this.

A Texas congressman, Paul is also a RINO, a Republican in name only, but not in the original sense of that term. Usually, a RINO is a Republican officeholder suspected or guilty of acting on Democratic principles. Paul is a libertarian, pure and simple - or not quite pure: pure in his libertarian interpretation of the Constitution but willing to be pragmatic on some government social programs.

He calls himself a Republican only because in a closed two-party system it is the only way he could get a seat at the table. Yet in some respects, he is the most Republican of all the candidates.

Paul's positions differ radically from those of his rivals. He wants American troops out of Iraq immediately. He wants American troops out of Korea. He wants American troops out of Germany. He thinks getting rid of the Taliban in Afghanistan went beyond the mission American troops undertook there. Unlike nearly all the other candidates, he wants to shrink the military, not expand it.

The reason Islamic terrorists want to kill us, Paul says, is that we are occupying their region. They see us as modern crusaders. Remove this provocation, and they'll leave us alone.

Rather than rattle sabers, he says, the United States should seek through diplomacy and incentives to change the Iranians' desire for nuclear weapons. We lived with the Soviet nuclear threat for decades, and in time it disappeared, he says. So why threaten military attack and risk war now over weapons that don't even exist?

On the domestic front, Paul believes in free-market solutions for big challenges like health care. He supports the power of the states to make their own laws on abortion rights, civil rights, drugs, end-of-life issues and stem-cell research.

He uses the last issue as an example of the cockeyed choices Washington politics forces on the public. Why, he asks, should a congressman have to decide between a prohibition on stem-cell research and a federal subsidy for such research? Why not leave the issue to the states and the free-market system?

Defense (as opposed to offense), border security, to some extent infrastructure - these are the proper realm of the federal government, Paul says. Pull back from foreign entanglements and reduce the government's role in other spheres, and you'll have enough money to do these things well. And although Social Security and Medicare rub against his philosophy, small government will leave enough money to save them as well.

In short, the Paul program is leaner, more efficient government, greater individual liberty and an end to foreign adventures. In a presidential race in which most candidates on both sides of the ballot see murkiness as a virtue, this is a crystal clear message. And the messenger is about as pleasant a politician as you'd ever want to meet.

That's why Paul ought to move to New Hampshire and try to win our primary. Our state has always had a strong libertarian streak. Sometimes it bucks the establishment. But voters here like to be asked. To trust a candidate, they have to know him or her.

Paul has been the surprise of the campaign so far, attracting legions of devoted, mostly younger enthusiasts.

As he said during an editorial board at the Monitor a few days ago, the Paul boomlet has surprised him, too.

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