MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Tuesday noted that no Republican president candidate had tried to compete with Ron Paul’s loyal base, even though they were voters just like any others.

“It’s like he doesn’t have corporeal form,” she said. “There is never a discussion of whether or not any other Republican candidate will ever try to compete for his voters. Ron Paul voters are human beings. Why does nobody compete for them?”

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Paul has gained an enthusiastic and dedicated following for his strong views on limited government, state’s rights and free market economics. Many of his economic positions and rhetoric have been adopted by mainstream Republicans, but his views on issues like drug legalization and foreign policy set him far apart from his rivals.

“You’d have to depart from Republican orthodoxy to go at them in any way,” Lawrence O’Donnell responded. “You have to become more of a peacenik than Gene McCarthy ever was. And you see what Santorum does with that. Ron Paul pushes Santorum to the point of saying, ‘I will bomb, I personally will bomb Iran, I’ll do it.'”

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

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