You mean there's a good presidential candidate?

As cynical as I am about the potential for shrinking government and restoring some measure of liberty through the questionable means of the ballot box, I'll admit to a certain embarrassing thrill from time to time when a promising candidate throws his or her hat in the ring and declares an intention to submit to the reverse-Darwinian weaning process that is electoral politics. So it is with the announcement by Representative Ron Paul of Texas that he's seeking the Republican nomination for president.

Paul, who represents southeastern Texas’ 14th District, announced on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” program that he is taking his presidential bid beyond the exploratory phase that he had announced in January. His campaign said it filed paperwork later Monday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to establish a presidential campaign fundraising committee.

Rep. Paul is a decent guy -- I met him once during his 1988 run for president as a Libertarian -- and the best friend freedom has in Congress. That means, of course, that he has fuck-all chance of winning the nomination, let-alone the presidency. It's candidacies like his that keep people who should know better coming back for another heartbreaking tilt at the political windmill long after they should have written off the process and torn up their voter registration cards.

But Paul's candidacy creates an excellent opportunity for injecting actual important issues into the presidential race. As an anti-war, pro-civil-liberties Republican, he can influence the debate and force other candidates to address the Iraq fiasco and the erosion of individual rights since 9/11. The war and liberty won't just be partisan donkey vs. elephant issues when he calls for bringing the troops home and repealing the Patriot Act. He can make the other candidates -- Republicans in particular -- stake out positions on these issues and clarify the choices we have going into the 2008 election.

There I go, getting up my hopes again.