The word out of Iowa is that the flood of youthful Ron Paul supporters canvassing the state has had the opposite effect - alienating middle-aged voters from their preferred candidate. The same phenomenon was seen in 2004 when Howard Dean's campaign tanked after out-of-state youths had thoroughly aggravated the local citizenry.
When enthusiasm for a candidate turns to mocking and taunting, one loses the ability to influence and persuade. At the risk of painting with a broad brush, Ron Paul supporters are some of the more passionate (and obnoxious) people on the political spectrum. Iowa found this out over the holidays.
The mainstream media might indulge the Occupy Wall Street types, but most Americans are repelled by firsthand exposure to such tactics. Through selective reporting, the media can whitewash the transgressions of OWS for their television audience, but they can't be on every Iowa street corner. We are a long way from the youthful enthusiasm Obama rode in 2008. Today's candidates must be increasingly careful when harnessing the energy of petulant activists. Iowans are witnessing the juvenile tactics of Paul's college-aged partisans without the media filter, and are being driven away from the candidate.
Ron Paul has said he is a politician who can bridge the Tea Party and OWS, but the reality might be that he is the latter's first political casualty.
There will be others.
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