Ron Paul breaks into the light as freedom warrior

Tribune-Review ^ | David Brown

[Salena Zito]

Ron Paul breaks into the light as freedom warrior By David M. Brown TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, November 11, 2007

DES MOINES -- It used to be easy to portray Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul as a quixotic champion of a hopeless cause. But Don Quixote never raised $4.2 million in a single day.

The parody of someone tilting at windmills hardly fits now that Paul is raising serious amounts of campaign cash. He's using it to fortify grassroots efforts in the important early caucus state of Iowa and to buy TV ads in New Hampshire and other key battleground states.

The Green Tree native who garnered just 432,000 votes in 1988, when he ran for president as a Libertarian, has 100,000 volunteers today.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

That wasn’t the question. I don’t expect you to answer for Ron Paul.

Then your best bet is to ask Ron Paul directly. i have no idea what he'd say. i doubt that any other Paul supporter on this board can answer that for you either.

To the best of my knowledge, he has no writings on that subject, but i'm certain that the trolls here can invent some!

[George W. Bush]

When he makes his inevitable 3rd party/indy run, as stated previously, and gladly. He'll split the Dem vote like a large, ambulatory railroad spike. ;)

This is kind of humorous to me right now. I just finished listening to McLaughlin Group and Eleanor Clift's prediction was that if Rudi is the GOP nominee then a third-party pro-life party most likely headed by Ron Paul will form. (Actually, it's already formed and will be the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party and the last remains of the old Perot bunch all united).

So, you and Eleanor. I dread the day you two agree and even more, the thought you were right. It's even worse thinking that when my primary comes in six months, I might have to give up my only chance ever to vote for Ron Paul and vote for Fred or Mitt (or even McCain or Huckabee) just to stop Rudi.

How about $5? Just give him $5. C'mon, you know you want to.

[Iwo Jima]

or mongoloid" = Paul.)

It is long past time to ban this disruptive trouble-making troll.

[devere]

Loathe him or like him, Ron Paul now stands third in the race for the Republican nomination behind Giuliani and Romney. The betting site www.intrade.com today gives Paul a 7.7% chance of winning the GOP nomination, which puts him ahead of Thompson, McCain, and Huckabee.

Ron Paul likes to recall that he was one of a handful of Republican Congressmen who supported Ronald Reagan for President in 1976. And Reagan supported him also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyXW1hb-JQg ( Paul TV ad )

Ron Paul has called himself a Taft Republican, and that seems pretty accurate to me. Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, who was called “Mr Republican” at the time, opposed NATO and the UN, advocated an isolationist foreign policy, and was considered an “ultra-conservative”. Here is Ron Paul addressing the Robert Taft club of Virginia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8cPoCcqL3U

Robert Taft’s ultraconservatism was considered impractical in 1952, and the voters will likely decide the same thing about Ron Paul’s brand of isolationist conservatism. But none of that makes Ron Paul a leftist or insane. I intend to vote for the Republican candidate for President in 2008, whether it’s Giuliani, Romney, Paul, Thompson, Hunter, Tancredo, Huckabee, or almost anyone else. They are all much better than any Democrat!

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

So, you and Eleanor. I dread the day you two agree and even more, the thought you were right.

Genuinely amazed at the notion that Old Mad Eleanor actually managed to form, hold and express a reasonably coherent thought, after all these years of desperately trying to do so. One contemplates the cosmic grandeur and majesty that is The Law of Averages. ;)

How about $5? Just give him $5. C'mon, you know you want to.

Depends on who he announces as his 3rd party running mate. Al Gore? Cindy Sheehan? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Don't forget, he's going to want to at least try and carry the Eastern seaboard states! ;)

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

It is long past time to ban this disruptive trouble-making troll.

Iwo, don't bother the Mods....it's futile.

Just ignore the vile comments

[County Agent Hank Kimball]

"The polls are flawed. They are excluding his name and are calling the same registered GOP voters who voted in 2004. Most of Paul's supporters are newcomers or independents."

----------

You forgot two important categories: Marxists and those recently released from mental institutions.

Seriously, here's the inherently fraudulent thing about Paul. He claims to be a libertarian, but the only position on which he now takes a small government stance is the Iraq war.

When's the last time he mentioned getting rid of any of the alphabet soup agencies on the campaign trail? Or standing up for the second amendment? Or maybe phasing out Social Security?

What has this alleged libertarian had to say recently about protecting property rights from environmental loons and eminent domain abuse?

I don't think he's been a fraud in the past...but he is now. He knows his new fellow-travellers are socialists and leftists, so he's now soft-pedalling his limited government positions (if he ever really believed them). Heard him talk about abolishing civil rights laws lately? Hell now, the lefties who are propping him up would drop him like a hot potato.

If Paul wants to convince us he's a real small-government libertarian, let him do just one speech where he doesn't bring everything back to the Iraq war. Even in the debates, he brings everything back to the Iraq war. Why? BECAUSE ALL HIS LEFTY BACKERS WOULD DROP HIM LIKE A HOT POTATO IF HE STARTING TALKING ABOUT LIMITED GOVERNMENT AND LAISSEZ-FAIRE CAPITALISM.

So I've concluded Paul is either:

A) An opportunist who has abandoned his libertarianism to curry favor with the anti-war socialist left; or

B) A fraud who ever really was a libertarian to begin with.

Until he stops dragging every discussion back to Iraq (there ARE other issues), those are the only choices.

Hank

[JerseyHighlander]

When's the last time he mentioned getting rid of any of the alphabet soup agencies on the campaign trail? Or standing up for the second amendment? Or maybe phasing out Social Security?

 

The answer is THIS MORNING.  Ron Paul was on Face the Nation, this morning. Link pops to youtube video in a new window. (New Window) of Youtube video of the interview

[rineaux]

RP always seems to give others credit for his success. The first question asked was about how he raised the 4.2 mill. He said he didn’t, his staff and volunteers... You know every other candidate would be boosting about how wonderful they are and how their message is....

Thanks for posting video. Will watch it later.

[Gator113]

Ron Paul is a foolish craven lickspittle. Frankly, I think he’s just plain nut’s.

He would NEVER get my vote, but I wouldn’t vote for Billary the Beast even with a gun against my head. I would sooner be water-boarded with human body waste.

[JerseyHighlander]

Ron Paul was on active duty during the Cuban missile crisis. He brings up the Cuban missile crisis today on his interview on face the nation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doavZBg3PJM

You might find a bit of insight on Paul’s position from this interview.

[Iwo Jima]

He's used that "mongoloid" slur more than once. I am insulted that he would so abuse the less than perfect among us.

I am hot as hell about this.

[County Agent Hank Kimball]

Probably not the best choice of words....but please.....

Let’s not sink to the PC politics of hypersensitivity. Let’s leave that to the lefties and their victimization fetishists.

We’re big boys and girls here.

Hank

[listenhillary]

I watched it.

Ron Paul in power? We will talk wile Russia and China consolidate their power and fill the vacuum left by the USA military being removed from bases around the world.

[Iwo Jima]

He’s used it more than once and stand behind it. It tells a lot about someone. I am just as offended as if someone used the “N” word, maybe even more so.

[Does so]

"...back then they would have been called Trotskyites..."

Trotsky was anti-German and anti-Stalin, and one of his last quotes was:

"...For forty-three years of my conscious life I have remained a revolutionist; for forty-two of them I have fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to begin all over again I would of course try to avoid this or that mistake, but the main course of my life would remain unchanged. I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth..."

I fail to see your Trotsky connection to what Peaceniks (and the Radical Left) are calling neocons.

[longtermmemmory]

You are not thinking this out.

He has too much money to track his actual place in the polls.

In the 2004 election democrats donated to the constitution party candidate in FL in order to attempt to split a few votes.

you are being naive in the extreme, but then that is par for ronpaulists. you are being used.

[infidel29]

I generally don't listen to what Paul has to say since HE CANNOT BE ELECTED. Beside the fact that he gets farther and farther down the yellow brick road each week.

When a leftist organizes the fundraiser who do you think he enlists to donate? Why? Agenda?

Paul has said he won't run as a third party candidate? So what? Enough people in his ear with enough enticement can make the most steadfast politicians change their minds.

If being against Ron Paul places my head up my rear, then I'm gargling stomach acid.

[County Agent Hank Kimball]

So spend your life being “offended” if you want - that’s your choice.

As for me, I’ll leave that to the PC left and their facist media acolytes.

Sticks and stones and all that.

Hank

[backtothestreets]

"The Anti-Major Party Message is gaining converts. "

No kidding!

A poll from September this year asked voters of all political persuasions were asked if the Democrats and Republicans do an adequate job representing the American people, or is a New Third Party needed. Thirty-nine percent of voters polled said Democrats and Republicans do an adequate job of representing the American people. An astounding 57% said the two parties do not adequately represent the American people, AND a third major party is needed. With as many as 125 million voters expected to go to the polls in 2008, 57% would represent over 71 million voters, and more than enough to defeat the Democratic-Republican political dynasty.

The Democrats and Republicans might have to join forces to win next year. If a viable third choice is on the ballot, and Democrats and Republicans go it alone and split their 39% base, it will not be good for either.