In this piece on Politico, Ron Paul holds forth on the surprising way in which establishment Republicans and some Democrats have come around to his ideas on domestic policy.

Actually, it shouldn't be surprising. The Texas congressman was the only politician on the national scene last year who accurately predicted the current mess.

Anyway, he may end up in a race against Sarah Palin for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Here are his thoughts on Palin:

"I wonder whether she's energizing the 15-20 year olds. That would be a question I would have. Because she doesn't talk about the Federal Reserve and some of these issues. She doesn't talk too much about personal liberties, civil liberties, getting rid of drug laws, attacking the war on drugs, punishing people who torture."

Paul characterizes her supporters as "more establishment, conventional Country-Club type of Republicans."

That's certainly the case. The supposedly "conservative" Palin rarely espouses anything that could be taken as a conservative philosophy. Meanwhile Paul is something of a walking encyclopedia of true American conservatism stretching back through Barry Goldwater through Robert Taft to the founding fathers.

The reason young people follow Paul is that he shows them just how bad things will be for them thanks to all the generations back to the so-called "greatest generation," which came close to turning America into a socialist state. Now the kids will be paying the tab for that state for the rest of their lives.

Paul offers them a way out. Palin offers nothing. He's all ideas and no charisma. She's all charisma and no ideas.

It's a perfect match-up. Now if only Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee would get out of the way.