Posted on 05/17/2007 7:08:13 PM PDT by tpaine
The Ron Paul Smear Campaign
Doug Kendall
By now, it is painfully obvious to most people in the freedom movement that Republican presidential hopeful, Ron Paul, has been targeted for elimination—by his own Party. The politically-connected elite within the Republican Party, along with allied organizations and operatives, are working overtime to make sure that Ron Paul is burned at the stake for daring to speak the truth and defy the Good Ol' Boy system.
In all honesty, Dr. Paul should have known that he would be set up in the second debate—after he scored so high in poll after poll, following the first debate—and after he made it clear that he would not tow the neo-con, police-state, Giuliani-style "war" on terror line. Everyone from Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, so-called "conservative" news websites and columnists, and even local talk radio shows have done everything in their power to define Ron Paul as a "nut-job," "dope," and "moron," calling for his removal from the debates because his views are supposedly "dangerous" for the country.
Glenn Beck even went so far as to repeatedly label Ron Paul a "libertarian"—because there is always some kind of negativity associated with it, when Beck uses it—and then used that as a vehicle to beat up on Libertarians, in general, masterfully trying to kill two birds with one stone.
It's very telling, and very sad, watching these elitists attempt to exterminate those who favor increasing freedom by reducing the size and scope of government. The latest and most sickeningly obvious attempt to discredit Ron Paul, called "Big Outrage," is coming from Fox News.
Fox News anchor, John Gibson, recently stated that the second presidential debate got a little "spicy" after "Paul suggested that the US actually had a hand in the terrorist attacks." He even went so far as to attempt to link Paul to the 911 Truth crowd and Rosie O'Donnell—whose picture they flashed, twice, during the five-minute segment, along with the tagline, "ROSIE O'DONNELL STRONGLY BELIEVES IN 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORIES." Gibson said that the 911 Truth movement has "infected people like Rosie O'Donnell, and one in three Democrats, and many other Americans—evidently, including Congressman Ron Paul." To make matters worse, he brought columnist and Fox News contributor, Michele Malkin, into the segment and said he would have expected to hear something like this from the Democrat debates. In perfect neo-con newsperson style, Malkin stated, "Ron Paul really has no business being on stage as a representative of Republicans," apparently because of the 911 Truth "virus." She then went on to further drive the point about 911 Truthers being mainly democrats, and mentioning something about a mental illness that typically affects people on the Left, called "Bush Derangement Syndrome."
I have lost no love on Democrats, either, but anyone who is even remotely familiar with Ron Paul knows that Malkin's attempt to link Paul to Democrats is laughable. If you look closely, you will see that Ron Paul's statements had nothing to do with the 911 Truth movement, but Fox News is spinning it in that fashion.
In so many words, Paul stated the obvious and basically repeated the findings of the 911 Commission's report:
Meddling in the affairs of others often fosters animosity and a desire for retaliation, and we would never allow other countries to do to us some of the same things that the US is doing to them—and it amazes me to see the scores of people who cannot seem to grasp those facts. The 911 Truth movement seeks to discover whether or not the Bush Administration had foreknowledge about, or actually had a hand in, the September 11th attacks—and that has nothing to do with Ron Paul's statements. 911 Truth deals with conspiracy, but Ron Paul spoke of consequences from our brand of foreign policy—two very different things.
Being an anarcho-capitalist, I do not care for government—small or otherwise—but Ron Paul is a step in the right direction, and he is certainly the most freedom-oriented and fiscally responsible candidate in the Republican stable—and it says a lot about the Republican elites who are using character assassination techniques to discredit and silence him, instead of debating the issue.
Karl Marx would be proud.
During a radio interview, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) once said, "The hallmark of the Republican Party has always been freedom," but everything I've seen lately further confirms that his statement couldn't be further from the truth. I've always known, but this is just icing on the cake.
I've heard Republicans invite Libertarians to join the Republican Party, to work within a bigger, established Party, but this situation should serve as a warning to Libertarians, and any other freedom-loving types, that you should resist the temptation. Freedom has no place within the Republican Party (or the Democrat Party).
Doug Kendall is the host, scheduler & Webmaster of The Dangerous Doug Kendall Show. Listen to live streaming of the show at www.DangerousDoug.net.
"-- Meddling in the affairs of others often fosters animosity and a desire for retaliation, and we would never allow other countries to do to us some of the same things that the US is doing to them --"
—and it amazes me to see the scores of people who cannot seem to grasp those facts.
Seems to me it's a fairly simple concept; - why so many here at FR blow up about it [like Guiliani] is a minor mystery.
Wait till you see the reaction to Zawahiri quoting Paul in his next tape. LOL
There is no smear campaign.
Ron Paul is on the skids becuase he is the odd duck.
He is far to idealogical to winover joe everyman
Why does Ron Paul invoke the name of Reagan then? Reagan was the polar opposite of Ron Paul with regards to international affairs.
Mind your own business is difficult advice to follow.
I don’t need Glen Beck to tell me Ron Paul is a nut.
;) Spot on, good post.
Should we base our foreign policy around the wishes of Osama bin Laden?
Because that’s what a Ron Paul presidency would entail. Paul likes to lecture us about history but he seems to not understand that appeasement has never worked.
If I understand what you’re saying, I fear you’re wrong. We can’t pretend that isolationism would work. It didn’t work before WWII, and it certainly won’t now. And, BTW, as to those online “polls” showing Dr. Paul in the lead, bear in mind they were probably loaded by the libs who’d like nothing better than for the Republicans to nominate him.
Yeah, but that will be a Republican trick when Zawahiri does.
If he really had scored high in any poll, they'd be listing the poll and his numbers. The reality is that a small number of people support this nutbag. LGF has a link to all the polls and Ron Paul never gets more than 2% in any of the polls. That's why his loony supporters are stooping to lying about his performance.
Keep on polishin' that turd, Paulians.
Ron Paul is a gadfly. That can be a useful role for a congressman to play, and his constituents seem willing to support it. Fine.
But he will never appeal to the country as a whole, or to the conservative movement as a whole, or to Republicans as a whole. And he would make a lousy president.
Sure the 9/11 comission said that. So what? Do you credit everything that Jamie Gorelik and Co. had to say? They managed to pretend that clinton had nothing to do with 9/11 at all. Some commission.
Being an anarcho-capitalist does not enhance one's credibility.
If only we hadn’t brought Pearl Harbor on ourselves by making the Japanese mad...we could be living safe in isolation today, avoiding entanglements with Nazi Europe and the Japanese Empire of the Pacific.
How easy “Dr” Paul forgets that the reason we MUST “meddle” in the affairs of others is that they have done things like run a 1300 year campaign fostering genocide in search of world domination.
But sure, we should follow your nutsack’s recommendation to remain isolated.
Whatever.
That fool smears himself.
And if you don't believe it, just look at Japan and Germany that we meddled in vigorously. Sixty-odd years of occupation, and they're still quagmires.
Oh - wait a minute - they're actually civilized, peaceful countries?
Never mind.
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