Ron Paul's position on the War on Terror and his votes WITH the Democrats to cut and run disqualify him. I support Paul on almost every other issue and have long respected him. But he doesn't understand the threat posed by Islamofascism against the United States. That's a showstopper.
Bears repeating. Case closed as far as I'm concerned.
I strongly suspect that a man as smart as Paul fully understands the thread posed by Islamofascism against the United States. He just isn't willing to sacrifice the Constitution to that cause.
It's difficult to imagine that the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalist terrorism would go unaddressed by a Paul administration. That said, it's also highly unlikely that Paul will ever be a serious contender for the Oval Office.
Imagine the political power of the stakeholders in the Federal Reserve; you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that Paul's opposition to the Federal Reserve system will have made him some powerful political opponents. I suspect that, for that reason, he's not a viable candidate.
Ron Paul supported the Authorization for Use of Military Force against the Taliban in 2001 because there was clear evidence of their aggression against America. And, what is more, Ron Paul introduced a Congressional Declaration of War against Iraq prior to the Invasion, on the grounds that it was Constitutionally necessary.
Ron Paul warned us that without a proper Declaration of War, the Congress would blame President Bush for any setbacks: "A declaration of war makes Congress assume the responsibilities directed by the Constitution for this very important decision, rather than assume that if the major decision is left to the President and a poor result occurs, it will be his fault, not that of Congress." -- Ron Paul
If we're going to fight a War, don't you think it should be done Constitutionally?
What Ron Paul understands is that (1) that Congress should have declared war against Iraq...or refused to do so...so that Democrats could not now try to offer weasely explanations as to why they supported a resolution giving the President the sole authority to decide if, when and how we would attack Iraq AND (2) the action in Iraq has made the threat of Islamofacism worse...at least accrding to the Presdident's own Intelligence Estimate last year
Ron Paul deserves praise for consistently standing against this hare-brained scheme in Iraq that has, at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of American troops' lives, done nothing but made a kingmaker out of Iran in that area and increased the recruitment of jihadists around the world (again, according the Presdident's own Intelligence Estimate last year)
As for voting with the Democrats...my opinions won't be influenced by what the contemptible, opportunitistic Democrats think or do...I frankly couldn't care less how they vote...I'm only interested (and I believe Ron Paul is only interested) in the interested in what is best for America...and, on Iraq, Ron Paul was right...its time for some of my holdout conservative compatriot brothers to recognize this