I think the first part of understanding Ron Paul is seeing that he is not merely 'center-right' or 'libertarian' - in some sense, for better or worse, he defies traditional labeling.

I learned this the hard way when I got into an argument with my friend over who would support stricter border security measures: Rudy Giuliani or Ron Paul?

I've started to use http://votegopher.com/issue.php?can=7&issue=11 as a great resource for comparing candidates, and the results were indeed surprising. I recommend you see the comparison for yourselves, but Ron Paul actually supports building a border fence without a guest worker program or citizenship eligibility for illegals.

You can compare up to four candidates on Votegopher. I suggest you select Obama, Giuliani, Ron Paul, and Fred Thompson, and look at them on immigration - you may be as surprised as I was.