Blackwell said
Paul and the gospel writers had plenty of opponents who would have known and objected if the depiction of Jesus was totally out of line with reality, just as there are plenty of people who would object if a supporter of Nixon wrote a book today declaring that he was innocent.  

Gotta love those WOULD HAVE arguments. Apart from it’s apologetic nature, it assumes that we would have ANY of this information, available to us today We know from Galatians, for example, that Paul was being criticized one might say precisely because he was believed to be wrong in his portrayal of Jesus teachings. But here again we have the apologetic extreme:”totally out of line with reality”

 But where does Paul portray Jesus as popular in any way? And why isn’t that your point of reference vis some apologetic extreme. Why is Paul a reliable source for this claim?

And why would Paul’s  Christian opponents have an an interest in describing Jesus as less popular? Seems to me they would have the exact same motive for exaggeration.

What’s your evidence outside of apologetic speculation? How would you arrive at your conclusions via the Critical Method?