Is presidential candidate Ron Paul a libertarian standard-bearer?

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul at the National Press Club in Washington, Oct. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Through multiple presidential runs and 12 terms in Congress, the Texas Republican has emerged as one of the nation’s best-known small-government champions. That means no to income taxes and the Federal Reserve and, ultimately anyway, a return to gold as a basis for the nation’s currency. The former obstetrician believes personal liberty trumps federal laws governing abortion, smoking, narcotics, and seat belts. And today’s Wall Street Journal offers more about how Mr. Paul’s non-interventionist foreign policy has proven both blessing and curse.

The candidate polls only about 10% nationally, but his backers are fiercely loyal.

“His influence is far larger than the votes that he gets,” says Nick Gillespie, the editor of Reason.com, the online edition of libertarian Reason magazine. “No politician has been more important in mainstreaming the libertarian idea that individuals should have more power and the government should have less,” says Mr. Gillespie, author with Reason magazine editor Matt Welch, of “The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America.”…