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"FacebookPinterest\n\nFor more than a week now, Republicans have been buzzing with rumors of a strategic alliance between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Leaving aside for a moment whether these rumors are true, they certainly seem unlikely to sit well with Paul\u2019s legion of uncompromising devotees. So on Saturday, I went to a Paul rally on a nearly frozen college campus in central Michigan to find out whether any of them could stomach supporting Romney, even if Paul asked very nicely.\n\n&amp;quot;Hell no!&amp;quot; says Nick Marroni, a 30-year-old indie game designer brandishing a copy of End the Fed. &amp;quot;I think he\u2019s a total creep. He\u2019s exactly the same as Gingrich, Santorum, and Obama, they\u2019re all creeps. They\u2019re all corrupt.&amp;quot; And if Paul endorsed him? &amp;quot;I\u2019d just be disappointed in Ron Paul. I don\u2019t support Ron Paul because it\u2019s Ron Paul. I support what he represents.&amp;quot;\n\nThe notion that Paul might be angling for a vice-presidential slot for himself\u2014or for his son, Rand\u2014sounds especially absurd to the people who claim to know him best. To hear them tell it, the so-called cult of Ron Paul is a myth. The cult surrounds his message\u2014his anti-Fed evangelism, his anti-intervention credo\u2014and Paul has only maintained his role as their leader by remaining doggedly committed to it through his decades-long career. As Thaddeus McCotter, a colleague of Paul\u2019s in the House, told me this weekend, libertarians make &amp;quot;terrible co-conspirators.&amp;quot; They\u2019re too independent and too stubborn to consider supporting someone like Mitt Romney, who, as retired staff sergeant Rhys Williams says, &amp;quot;is a carbon copy of Obama\u2014no, he\u2019s worse.&amp;quot;\n\n Williams calls over Joe Jurecki, a rotund, Marine Corps vet in a mustard-colored sweater, and asks, &amp;quot;Hey, do you think Ron Paul will endorse Mitt Romney?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;No,&amp;quot; Jurecki says. &amp;quot;Ron Paul won\u2019t do it. He stood on principle his whole career. The only reason he\u2019s at where he\u2019s at now is because he stood strong.&amp;quot; Williams nods, and then turns to me. This whole Romney-Paul alliance, he says, is &amp;quot;media skullduggery.&amp;quot;\n\n I remind them that Ron Paul participated in a recent New York Times story noting that the two had a friendly relationship--and that The Washington Post has reported that they coordinate on minor details, such as the timing of election night speeches. But Jurecki is nonplussed, suggesting these stories are just a Romney ploy to tame their influence. &amp;quot;They know without our vote they cannot win,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;They don\u2019t want to tick us off. They know a lot of us won\u2019t vote for him anyway if he\u2019s the nominee but they definitely don\u2019t want us working against them. They also don\u2019t want Ron getting mad and running third party.&amp;quot;\n\n In the online Ron Paul forums, there was\u2014unsurprisingly\u2014a more conspiratorial theory: the &amp;quot;alliance&amp;quot; was a lie, cooked up by Romney and served to the public by the media. The sinister goal here, wrote one commenter on Daily Paul, &amp;quot;is to disillusion his supporters into thinking that he too, like Romney, is a sell out and a RINO so that when he loses supporters won\u2019t be so upset and will vote for Romney.&amp;quot;\n\n Of course, there is a more banal, less sinister, and altogether more likely explanation: maybe Ron Paul and Mitt Romney just like each other? &amp;quot;Being cordial is one thing,&amp;quot; says Joel Robideaux, a state representative from Louisiana who endorsed Paul. But &amp;quot;making concessions and compromises\u2014that\u2019s really not his style. For those of us who kind of live in the political world and who cover it, it\u2019s oftentimes a lot less complicated than what people try to make of it.&amp;quot; And in any case, Robideaux says, an alliance\u2014even if one existed\u2014almost certainly wouldn\u2019t work. &amp;quot;As beloved as Dr. Paul is with his supporters I\u2019m not sure he can deliver them to someone like Romney,&amp;quot; Robideaux says. &amp;quot;Even if he begged them.&amp;quot;\n\nRead more from Death Race 2012\n\n&amp;quot;The Third Man: Walter Kirn on Why Ron Paul the Steadiest Candidate in the Race&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;The GOP Neckwear at the CNN Debate, Ranked From Best to Worst&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;Even Rush Limbaugh is Bummed Out About This GOP Primary&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;A Senator Without Constituents: Russ Feingold on Obama, the GOP primary, and the Tea Party\u2019s patriotism deficit&amp;quot;\n\n_[&amp;quot;GQ\u2019s Presidential Playlist: Michigan Edition&amp;quot;\n\n](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race/2012/02/gqs-presidential-playlist-michigan-edition-022212.html)_\n\n &amp;quot;The Thimble vs. The Iron: Walter Kirn on Why The Republican Primary Has Turned Into a Game of Monopoly&amp;quot;\n\nFollow Reid on Twitter."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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