Romney and McCain got on the ballot because they were the least bad of all the candidates.
I was going to offer my reaction to that one, but Fitz took care of it already.
What makes any of you think that any candidate who threatens the security-state status quo will get anywhere close to the White House? With every form of communications being catalogued and available to government agencies(who are now known, to cooperate and share information), I submit to you that a public call for the abolition of TSA/NSA/IRS/etc will mark the end of a presidential campaign(a credible campaign, anyway. Rand Paul or another pseudo-libertarian like him will never get the RNC nod anyway, so he can say whatever he likes, as he'll never have power over the executive). Everyone in a position of power has something to hide.
It sounds all kinds of tinfoil-hat, but think about it. Government agencies do not like talk of budget cuts, to say nothing of complete closure. Hoover's FBI had TONS of power over DC... and that was before the information age.
Just thinking out loud :)