Has Ron Paul dropped out?

Ron Paul's "revolution" has been money-rich, but delegate-poor in this election cycle. Dr. Paul has cast himself as the "true conservative" of the G.O.P, and has suffered for standing against many of the ideas that the so-called "neoconservatives". He had pledged to fight to the very end, but recently sent a letter to his supporters that appears to indicate he is ending his presidential bid in order to defend his Congressional seat.

But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties — just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.

I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen.

Of course, with Dr. Paul winning only 14 delegates nationally, one must wonder if that itself was not a rejection of his ideas on some level. Or at least a rejection of his personality. Then again, it was nice having someone on the platform forcing the other candidates to defend the Iraq War. It sharpened and clarified their differences. And that was a useful thing to everyone.