A YEAR ago, Leon Lim, a 35-year-old doctoral student in Sanskrit from Dayton, Ohio, decided with his wife, Ranjani Powers, a yoga instructor, to head off to Bali, or India, or anywhere, really, just “somewhere very far away” — from the Iraq war, the Patriot Act and the tanking dollar, Mr. Lim said.“We were just so disillusioned with the way everything was going,” explained the shaven-headed Mr. Lim, who wore a gold hoop earring in each ear. The couple had supported Ralph Nader in 2000, Ms. Powers said, but had since “given up on America.”

But they found an unlikely reason to stay: Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican congressman from Texas who continues to run for president, even months after Senator John McCain has essentially sewn up the nomination. ....more