Posted on 08/18/2007 1:36:47 PM PDT by Captain Kirk
Ron Paul received 216 votes for a commanding first-place finish in a straw poll today sponsored by the West Alabama Republican Assembly. Mitt Romney came in second with 14 votes.
The poll was open to Alabama residents.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.ronpaul2008.com ...
That explains all the Ron Paul signs up everywhere, though.
It is clear that Paul’s campaign has staying power.
That and the fact that Mitt and Thompson are flannel mouths.
He has no "isolationist" policies. The correct term is "non-interventionist", and that's a very different creature.
You’re wasting your time with this one.
Look, I’d vote for him too but the horse race is NOW, base-building momentum time, and FT is seen as dithering. If he really wants the job he’d better come out swinging hard NOW, moving into a COMMANDing lead asap, thus a real champion to take on the enemy. Remember, conservatives have Duncan Hunter as their plan B, and we may have a very interesting national convention....
“... this official Republican forum.”
This is not an ‘official’ Republican forum, this was a Republican Assembly straw poll. The Republican Assembly is a group of conservatives who hope to influence the Republican party to move it to the right, and oust the RINOs. It’s an independent conservative political organization.
This Paul win in AL is well and good, and it reflects the Ron Paul supporters effort to influence a state poll, but the real national Republican Assembly straw poll was at the NFRA convention in early August, and had these results:
http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2007/08/the_nfra_straw_poll.html
A “straw poll” was conducted by secret ballot:
Fred Thompson 33%
Mitt Romney 15%
Ron Paul 14%
Duncan Hunter 10%
Tom Tancredo 10%
I think this genuinely reflects the candidates of interest to conservative anti-RINO Republicans.
Further, there was an attempt that failed to get an endorsement for the NFRA. NFRA requires 2/3rds for an endorsement. Although he was not the top vote-getter in the straw poll, the last man standing in the endorsement process was Duncan Hunter. See:
http://arkansasgopwing.blogspot.com/2007/08/fred-thomson-wins-nfra-straw-poll.html
“I’m a supporter of Ron Paul, just not a fan of his isolationist policies.”
“He has no “isolationist” policies. The correct term is “non-interventionist”, “
those two terms mean the same thing, and the fact that Paul supporters squeal like stuck pigs every time the correct appelation is given to his policies of bring troops home from ever arena they are in suggests that they are, like too many other politicians, not willing to be honest about what they really represent.
I appreaciate some of Paul’s positions, and I too am an ardent foe of the Paul/Kucinich non-interventionist/isolationist/cut-n-run policy.
“All most of us want is a Republican who is willing to walk the Republican talk.”
Surely, that would be great.
The Republican talk is to win in Iraq, win the GWOT by using the tools necessary to go after terrorists, including partiot act, surveillance, gitmo, etc.
Ron Paul will NOT do any of those things.
Fiscal conservative -check. Traditional values - (against FMA but mostly check). Foreign policy -bzzzzt.
If Ron Paul wont walk the GOP talk on foreign policy, how can he possibly be representing the platform?
Honestly, Romney, Hunter, Thompson, Tancredo, even Huckabee would better represent the GOP platform - including foreign policy - than Ron Paul.
No, they don't. It's time to go to school.
First though, it's important to distinguish non-interventionism from isolationism. The former seeks a more rigorous and delimited definition of America's interests, while the latter a walled garden that completely cuts America off from the world. Non-interventionists are not pacifists, but they do reserve war fighting for moments of actual national peril. (Paul, for instance, voted to authorize war in Afghanistan in 2001.) They do not view the military as an instrument of social policy. If war is to be fought, non-interventionists demand a Congressional declaration of war to ensure that the conflict is one in which the nation's resources are fully brought to bear.Unlike isolationists, non-interventionists do not fear expanding and liberalizing trade (Paul has frequently said as much). Non-interventionists are confident in American strength and, unlike isolationists, are optimistic about America's engagement with the world. What they do not seek, however, is dominion over it. Non-interventionists trust that Western values are persuasive on their own terms, and become correspondingly less so when they are imposed on societies at gunpoint. Finally, non-interventionists tend to possess a truly conservative skepticism about government and the malleability of human nature. They do not believe America should squander its blood and treasure as it pursues utopian schemes like "ridding the world of evil."
The're all over where I live also. And in a place where a Kerry sign wouldn't be up but a few hours before someone defaced them or tore them down...Ron Pauls signs are staying up.
You want these powers in a Hillary Clintons hands? She has in the past referred to the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy. It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to go from there to the addition of one word to 'terrorist' to justify legal suppression of her critics...that word being 'domestic'...
You trust the Feds with that much power then you are one of those Ben Franklin was speaking to when he said
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"
The Patriot Act was a bigger victory for Osama then 9/11 was. He has us jumping any time he says BOO, and has us seeing terrorists in every domestic tragedy or natural disaster.
They say they do right now, although they'll change their tune come 2009. Here's an oldie from the Clinton days. This is what FR once was. Look at what it's become.
Too bad he’s a Truther nutbag.
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