I imagine a lot of folks on all sides are going to be disillusioned with politics this time around. We've seen a lot of grass roots guys, but the political machines don't seem to be paying that much attention to them.
Past Ron Paul types got worse treatment. Consider Goldwater in 1960 or Reagan in 1976. Also, consider what Reagan seemed to be when he was establishing his libertarian street cred, versus how he ended up governing -- if the primary campaign didn't disillusion Paul supporters, the Paul administration would have it covered.
Trying to keep this non-partisan, it seems that big pieces of the base of each party came out with their own guy this time around. There was Huckabee for the evangelicals, Paul for the A/W Libertarians, and Obama for the black vote. I guess you could even count Clinton with the feminists. In the past, each of these goups were considered the bedrock of their parties. The primary was so open that each group had their own guy, but in general it didn't seem to matter much. Machines beat bases.
You are right that there is a huge difference between the way a politician runs and the way he governs. That's probably a good thing. I think with emotions so high over various issues people are going to be dissapointed when they don't get the simple answer they wanted, no matter who they choose.
I imagine a lot of folks on all sides are going to be disillusioned with politics this time around. We've seen a lot of grass roots guys, but the political machines don't seem to be paying that much attention to them.