I used to use the term “anti-politician” and argue for a “politics of anti-politics” as far back as 2007 on this blog and its predecessor:

“The only political figures who make sense to me are anti-politicians or pure constitutionalists.”

But, since, this last campaign of Paul’s – a complete fiasco – I’ve crossed him off my list of “anti-politicians”:

… I’m not an ideologue and the only political figures who make sense to me are anti-politicians or pure constitutionalists, like Ron Paul, who represent what I think of as the best American tradition — non-interventionist, entrepreneurial, and individualist. And I think corporations can be as anti-individualist as the state.

Lew Rockwell, on the other hand,  has decided he wants to call Paul just that

“In fact, he didn’t do any of the things we associate with politicians. What his supporters love about him has nothing to do with politics at all.

Ron is the anti-politician.”

Hey, Lew, quite right. We’re flattered you read us.

That IS what his supporters did like about him.

But guess what?

He isn’t an anti-politician any more. He’s an ex-politician.

He ran a political campaign, with political ads, that used political rhetoric, replete with sins of omission, if not commission. He spoke like the rest of the frauds.

He was in it to win, or so he said, and so all his supporters said too.

He took real money, not anti-money, and real time, not anti-time, and real effort, not anti-effort from his supporters.

And he handed the whole thing over to a real politician, not an anti-politician – Mitt Romney.

You can’t have it both ways, Dr. Paul.

You either remain an honest elder statesman, a lovable father figure, in which case you stick to that role throughout.

Or you become a politician, in which case, you get to shade your meanings, talk out of both sides of your mouth, play partisan hard-ball,  take expedient positions, and join the rest, walking on earth, not on water.

Remember wrapping yourself in Reaganism? Think that brought you favor with pro-Reagan or anti-Reagan folks?

It’s all very well for your friends to start a festival called P.A.U.L to save something of the brand value to help their marketing and publishing business.

A clever idea. Worthy of genius marketers.

I would have preferred a little humble-pie. Like, “we were wrong.” “Our campaign helped Mitt Romney and hurt conservatives who actually showed us some respect and whose ticket we could actually have joined.”

But we preferred to make nice to our liberal network.

Now that we’d done the damage, we just do a little revisionism and claim to be “anti-politicians” again.

Ha ha.

You lose your cherry, that’s it. There’s no delete button. You don’t get to rewind and undo what you’ve become.

At least, not without a lot more than a rebranding campaign.  You’d need an admission of reality, to begin with.

No. Paul was an anti-politician in 2007.  In 2012, he is a failed politician.

He played the game and failed. He sold his support and the credibility of hundreds of thousands of his supporters for a mess of pottage for his son, who doesn’t look he’s going to be dining, anyway.

The father lost with the son.  That’s how it goes with these things.

Wenzel can delete a couple of those blog posts and comments talking up the campaign as “genius marketing.” That’s his privilege. But he can’t delete my memory of them.

We like you guys. But we actually do worry for you. We don’t think you know what the stakes really are or how you are being played….

Or are you – sickening thought – players?

Whether it was rigged and Paul is one more tool of the elites co-opting the opposition, or simply old and unable to manage, it does not reflect well on him, in either case.

I would have made a statement that took some blame, myself. I would have given some explanation.

But no.

Double- down on the self-approbation and forget the mea culpas  that a level-headed glimpse of the truth would warrant.

But, of course, marketing isn’t about truth, is it?

It’s about selling.

So sell away, boys.

Just make sure you’re not selling your souls in the bargain.

You can’t press rewind on that, either.