I’ve heard comparable complaints about pesos from local cashiers, but not about private currencies.
Unless this whole thing was just to make an important political point to US citizens: "Don't try to compete with us. We are the Feds and you will lose."
By the time that the dust clears on this whole Liberty Dollar issue -- whether it was based on technicalities, fraud or revenge -- the election will be over and it won't matter.
But what the Feds did in this case just may be a double-edged sword that they didn't plan on. Yes, some people may walk away from Ron Paul because this makes some of his followers look like "nuts" even though Ron Paul, himself, had nothing to do with it. (Always makes me laugh when people treat a candidate's following as though it is just "a club" in which they were considering membership.) But there may also be some (or many) who didn't necessarily support Ron Paul before, but for whom this action by the Feds proved the point that government has really gotten out of hand in going after citizens who are no real threat to us just to make a political point.