When Ron Paul ran, he ran a rather moderate, sensible platform at a time it seemed like his party's base wanted crazy, loud, angry and hateful. And they ended up running the most electable version of crazy, loud, angry and hateful (which was more duplicitous, out of touch, and rich but Romney's another story entirely). He picked a bad time to run.

Bernie Sanders is running at a time when democrats are sick of tea party ideology, hate, and inability to govern. He's got a solid, consistent voting record in a time of deep distrust of politicians and the government in general. I believe he picked a good time to run, where his base is receptive to his message, or maybe when we're simply sick of picking the lesser of two evils, or maybe we just want to know what we're getting when we vote for someone. I believe that he picked the right time to run, and he's got a much better shot than Ron Paul did.

He also doesn't have about 12 big names running against him and splitting the vote. Which helps. Ron Paul wasn't so lucky there either.