Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the best-selling author and libertarian standard-bearer who provided the only actually unique contribution to the 2008 presidential campaign, killed at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual right-of-center confab noteworthy this year for its being boyotted by social cons such as Jim DeMint and the folks at Heritage Foundaton due to the inclusion of the gay group GOProud.

Take a deep breath after reading that Faulknerian intro and then check out these snippets from a glowing CNN (yep) report:

Easily garnering the most enthusiastic applause of the day, Paul advocated for a complete governmental retreat in every realm of society. "We've had way too much bipartisanship for about 60 years," said Paul, in comments that drew one of many standing ovations during the 25-minute speech. "It's the bipartisanship of the welfare system, the warfare system…it all goes through with support from both parties. " "There is truly a revolution going on in this country. We live in a time where we don't just need a change in attitude and a change in ideas," Paul also said. "We need to change our philosophy about what this country is all about. " Paul, who ran a quixotic presidential bid in 2008 that caught fire with many fiscal conservatives and libertarians, added the crisis in Egypt is further proof American needs to disentangle from its foreign engagements. "We need to do a lot less, a lot sooner, not only in Egypt, but around the world," he said. "The people don't like us propping up our dictators no more than we would like it if a foreign country propped up a dictator here." Paul was the winner of the straw poll here last year, and, judging by the reception of the over-capacity crowd, is a favorite to win again. This year's straw poll will be closely watched given the annual event has become an early testing ground for potential GOP presidential candidates.

More here.

Fuel for the fire: Last night on Fox News, Charles Krauthammer dismissed CPAC as fringey precisely because Ron Paul won the presidential straw poll last year! And, to be fair, because The Donald Trump spoke there this year.

Reason on CPAC here.

Check out Reason.tv's CPAC with these two videos: