Via the AP: Paul keeps white supremacist donation

Don Black, of West Palm Beach, recently made the donation, according to campaign filings. He runs a Web site called Stormfront with the motto, “White Pride World Wide.” The site welcomes postings to the “Stormfront White Nationalist Community.”

The donation amount was $500.

I will admit, Paul’s spokeman, Jesse Benton, makes a point:

“And that’s $500 less that this guy has to do whatever it is that he does,” Benton added.

Still, given that Paul’s campaign has been linked to numerous such contributions, this isn’t exactly a brilliant PR move. On the one hand, because one takes a contribution doesn’t mean that one supports the contributor, on the other, sometimes one needs to draw a line at times, and it seems like neo-nazis/avowed white supremacists would be a good place to draw such a line (to put it mildly). Of course, if Paul gives Black (oh, the irony) his money back, he’d have to sort through all his other contributions and give back a bunch of other money as well.

Even beyond all of that, it simply isn’t healthy for a campaign to be associated with such groups. It certainly doesn’t help quell the public perception that Paul is a fringe candidate.