It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's ... the Ron Paul Blimp?

This scene could be coming to a skyline near you next month.

Maybe the title of this post should be "Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin Endorses Ron Paul" ...

My first reaction was that this doesn't seem to be a very efficient use of limited campaign funds ... but it turns out that this effort is not being spear-headed by the Paul campaign.

Aside from the money issue, gimmicks like this have a weird way of working in smaller elections. When Fred Thompson first ran for the senate he employed a red pick-up truck to demonstrate that he was just an average guy. Paul Wellstone campaigned with a green school bus. There was the Straight Talk Express that helped John McCain beat George Bush in the 2000 New Hampshire GOP primary. Locally, Rep. Gordon Hintz turned a utility van into a mobile billboard for his run for the state assembly.

The more I think about it, the blimp idea seems oddly appropriate: it's a wacky concept for an odd ball campaign. I don't know why the blimp's itinerary is "nationwide" instead of focusing on just the early primary states, but there's a lot about the Paul campaign that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me ... which is one of the reasons why it's so much fun to watch.

[via NRO]

MORE: Alex Massie's take ...