Yes, they sure can.
Here is an example of my guild master, Ceesa, tanking a crapload of npc in Karazan and BM :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAnctQaxBLw

Any comments?

/discuss

They can but mostly in the small group areas. 5mans and 10mans.

Yes, a paladin can tank the initial 25mans like Gruul and Magtheridon, but itemization catches up with paladins quickly. Paladins need to stack block rating a LOT more in order to be uncrushable. Warriors have shield block which if used correctly catches about 99% of all crushing blows. Druids just midigate crushing blows.

Aggro isnt too much off an issue either, which is a paladins strength. Both Druids and Warriors rely on rage, and the incoming damage via raid bosses makes this almost unlimited.

Tempest Keep Trash mobs also do a significant amount of silence, which will get a paladin killed. Thus, you need warrior tanks.

Warriors also have a significant amount of emergencey maneuvers that the other classes don't. Which makes them more desirable then other tanks. Feral Druids have the utility of also being a significant DPS class via catform, when they dont need to tank. A protection paly if not needed to tank really only brings buffs, and is a below average healer.

Blizzard has stated that the warriors are supposed to be the 'best' tanking class. Itemization really favors warriors.

So in conclusion, while a paladin can tank, relying on one to take you far in 25 man raid is risky.

Iceman

Another movie where Ceesa is tanking some rough NPCs.. sweet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2ICapt0kak

Yes and no. Heroics and the earlier raid stuff yes. After that no.

prot tree idiots

IMO THEY ARE THE BEST TANKS FOR DUNGEONS! I RUN A LOOOT WITH PALLY TANKS

1 word, Athene

I'm have a prot pally. I tanked every boss at least once up to SSC/TK.
Protections paladins are TEH aoe tanks. Some bosses are twice as easy with a pally tank at your side! Great for off tanking, but also main tanking goes fairly nice on melee bosses.

I have a couple of paladins so yes they can tank.

As long as they have mana they can tank really anything and walk away without a scratch.

I have raided end game content as both prot and holy.

Holy seems to be the less gear dependend of the two and seeing as most pallys are MT healers its just a run ride to watch all the pretty colours while having a sneeky chat with other easy classes.

However, after speccing prot recently I have found I have to really step up my game, ALOT is riding on just me (Tank MH and you'll see what I mean), Very gear dependend and much harder role to play.

However, stepping down to say Kara, any heroic, ZA, Grulls, Maggy, and SSC. The pally tank's role is alot easier and in some cases prefered to a warrior tank (I've done kara with only me tanking and 3 healers :D)

All in all pally tanking is very useful and unlike the sword and boarding warriors, we have lay on hands, IWIN tanking button :P

All the Palas I've seen tanking have died horribly.
But maybe that's because they suck...

Well with Wrath and crushing blows being lost entirely, the playing field has been totally levelled for tanks. In fact there's no longer any reason to choose one class over another to tank. While pallys were the preferred AoE tanks pre-Wrath, both warrs and druids can AoE tank very well now the target limit is gone on thunder clap and swipe.

Generally Blizz levelled the playing field so no matter what class a person is, they can tank any instance as long as they're geared for it and not an idiot.

Can paladins tank? Good paladins can tank.

Well yeah there one of the most versitile classes. They can Tanks,Healers,or dps. They just aren't as effective as the classes that are made for those.

Yes, they can tank. But don't piss off a Tanking Pally off though, otherwise, they'll purposely lose aggro, sheild and then hearth away. It happened to one of my friends. He was sure pissed.

Paladins can tank easy. Our guild has a warrior and death knight as a maintank, but we have a paladin alt who can tank Naxxramas with no problem whatsoever. He could even tank KT and both of his adds, something our warrior and DK havent pulled off yet.

After all of the buffing Prot has gotten in WotlK, there's no arguing, they can definitely tank.

I have a pally tank as my main and its AWESOME. Often I'm made to be off-tank in raids but thats just cos my gear isnt as good as my guild leaders and pallys are much better at taking multiple mobs than a single one.

you have to be a good paladin to tank.

We had two Main tanks in my old guild, one warrior and one paladin, and we finished most content with relative ease. So yes, they can tank.

My main has been a paladin since the days of "loot the hounds!!" and a tankadin since they have been able to tank.

It does take much more knowledge of the class to tank with them in wolk as compared to tbc as then most of you utility was standing at x and dropping consecrate and making sure adds don't swat your healers, aka the OT days. Right now they are one of the best choices of tank as then cover all the usual bases quite well, thanks too 3.2 :)

Geared and talented pally tanks are better tanks then equivalently geared and talented warriors, imho. I'd take a pally tank over a warrior any day.

Yeah, I join groups all the time with Paladin tanks.