The Republican party's richest gadfly may be changing his mind about an independent run for the Presidency of the United States.In the YouTube debate last month, Paul seemed firm in his commitment not to run as a third party candidate when he answered the question by saying he had "no intention" of running such a race.But according to Jeralyn Merrit of Talk Left, he sang a different tune on NBC's Meet the Press today when he said that he hadn't ruled a third party run out.Conventional wisdom says a Ron Paul 3rd party candidacy would sink the Republican nominee. But Paul's fierce anti-war stance as well as his "non-interventionist" foreign policy (retreat and surrender while turning the US military into a home defense force) is very attractive to the Naderites and other hard leftists who have joined his campaign.I would not be surprised if Paul runs as an independent. If he does, despite his attractiveness to the left, I believe his entry would insure the election...(Read Full Post)