As I've said:
They've build a springboard. They raised a whole lot of money - RP has four times more money left over from his campaign than any big L libertarian has ever raised in any Presidential race.
If they can get their people into precinct comittees and caucuses across the country, then that's going to be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
As someone who still gets the emails, I can assure you, this is exactly what they have been trying to do. Ron Paul himself will not run again. His movement is definitely still going, like you said, at the precinct level. The RP supporters are not dumb, they may be a little bit crazy, but they know the rules, and will do anything to get a Paulitician elected.
I think the reason for the unpopularity was the desperation with which the RP supporters conducted themselves. Everything had to be over the top, to get the attention of the media, so many times on the RP forums, did I hear "All coverage is good coverage, and I'd cringe as someone would relate in internet ebonics how they had just debated with an "idiot" (their view not mine) democrat.
I think the RP movement mostly caused it's own failure, by wearing the wookie suits and throwing snowballs at Sean Hannity. People are not going to vote for a candidate because a mob with pitchforks and torches says that they should. That said, these were the rabid RP supporters, not all of us were/are like that.
There are many Most RP supporters are normal. It's just the idiots in the wookie suits that screw it up for the rest of us. Although, I don't really blame the guy in the wookie suit, it sucks to be marginalized by the media. This election has been very much dictated by the media, which is very scary.
