Rep. Ron Paul does it his way (Sklar speaks)

Kansas City Star ^ | 11/14/07 | Jay Root

[George W. Bush]

<snip>

Paul's electoral success has befuddled Democrats. They say he routinely opposes bills that would help his sprawling 14th Congressional District, a mostly rural swath of coast that stretches from the northern outskirts of Corpus Christi to Galveston.

Last year, Republican appropriators zeroed out millions of dollars in funding for several dredging and port improvement projects in the district - a casualty, Democrats say, of Paul's opposition to government pork even if it benefits his own constituents.

Democrat Shane Sklar, a rancher who lost to Paul last year, said the congressman's supporters either didn't believe or didn't care that his votes had made him an ineffective gadfly.

"The attitude was, `He may be a little off the wall, but he's our off-the-wall guy,'" Sklar said. Plus, he said, Paul's congressional office gets high marks for helping constituents receive their federal entitlement benefits even though Paul opposes their existence, and voters cherish the free cookbooks he sends out.

President Ron Paul? Sklar won't rule it out.

"I think people underestimate his political skills all the time," Sklar said. "You can't ever take Ron Paul for granted."

[George W. Bush]

Shane Sklar, the 2006 Democrat sacrifice candidate, speaks out.

Ron Paul raised $1.5M, Sklar raised $500,000.

A long and balanced article, posted here only for Sklar's comments which we haven't seen at FR before.

[George W. Bush]

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article: 'President Ron Paul? Sklar won't rule it out. "I think people underestimate his political skills all the time," Sklar said. "You can't ever take Ron Paul for granted."'

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

[publiusF27]

Have you tried frying it? Everything is good fried, even Spam.

[hellbender]

Paul's electoral success has befuddled Democrats. They say he routinely opposes bills that would help his sprawling 14th Congressional District

We could use a lot more Republicans with that kind of courage. This reminds me of how his fellow NYPD detectives couldn't understand why famed NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico refused to take bribes like the rest of them.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Nobody’s forcing you to click on the link, pal.

[logician2u]

You notice how the anti-Paul folks tend to shy away from any articles that contradict some of their propaganda: in this case, that Ron Paul is a porker . . er, shrimper . . and hugely unpopular in his own congressional district.

The truth, when it finally gets out, must hurt.

[George W. Bush]

We should find and quote Sklar and the other Dims who kept criticizing Paul for failing to bring home the pork.

The truth, when it finally gets out, must hurt.

No, 'tis only a flesh wound to a real troll. They just ignore it and race out to find another Ron-is-a-Nazi thread. You'd think they would be bored with that by now.

I suspect that some of you are beginning to see why I don't mind their trolling one bit.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Serpico was a helluva movie. Eerily, Pacino looks the same in that movie as he does in “Carlito’s Way.”

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Yeah, I noticed that too. Meanwhile Paul is about to hit $9 million for the 4Q. I seriously believe he’ll get $25 million, which will cause mass panic here.

[George W. Bush]

Wow, $25 million. You are a confident man, EEE.

Admittedly, I’ve been a pessimist and been proven wrong repeatedly on these things. So I’m not going to argue with you. LOL.

Notice how those Dims in Texas in the article sure don’t seem to notice Ron Paul bringing home the earmarks for them. I wish we had more statements from them on the topic from that 2006 campaign.

I really liked the part where Sklar said he wouldn’t bet against a President Paul. LOL.

[George W. Bush]

You guys think we need a Turkish thread (from Turkey's most popular daily, kind of like USAToday).

Excerpt:

---

Dünya
17 November 2007

Doların haline bak

Emre KIZILKAYA

Amerikan Doları’nın dünya çapındaki değer kaybı sürerken, ABD başkanlık seçimlerinin sürpriz aday adayı Ron Paul adına basılan dolarlar ortaya çıktı.

"Ron Paul doları" basan bir şirkete FBI baskın düzenledi. ABD’nin "altın standardına" geri dönmesini isteyen Kongre üyesi Ron Paul, internette en büyük desteği alan Cumhuriyetçi aday. Bir günde internette 4.3 milyon dolar bağış toplayınca herkes Ron Paul’u ciddiye almaya başladı.

ABD Başkanı George W. Bush, geçen hafta "Dolar çok yakında eski gücüne kavuşacak" dedi; ama gidişat hiç de öyle görünmüyor. Gelecek yıl yapılacak ABD başkanlık seçimleri için partilerin adaylarının belirleneceği önseçimler öncesinde, Cumhuriyetçilerin yükselen yıldızı Ron Paul. ABD’nin 1971’de terkettiği "altın standardına" yeniden dönerek, karşılığı olmayan dolar basmayı bırakmayı vaadeden Paul’un internette başlattığı kampanya, önseçimlere günler kala büyük bir başarıya ulaştı.

Irak Savaşı’na karşı çıkan ender Cumhuriyetçi isimlerden olan ve Temsilciler Meclisi’nde Teksas eyaletini temsil eden Ron Paul, son haftalara kadar partisi içinde bile ciddiye alınmıyordu. Geçen hafta sadece 24 saat süren ve resmi kampanyasına bağlı olmayan gönüllüler tarafından yürütülen internet bağış kampanyasında, Paul’un adaylığı için 4.3 milyon dolar toplanarak rekor kırılınca durum değişti.

İNTERNETİN SESİ

Cumhuriyetçilerin en favori aday adayı Rudy Giuliani 47 milyon, Mitt Romney ise 67 milyon dolar bağışla, toplamda 8.3 milyon dolar toplayan Ron Paul’ün önünde. Ancak uzmanlar, diğer adayların aksine, Paul’ün çok daha fazla "sıradan vatandaştan", küçük küçük bağışlar topladığını ve daha büyük bir oy potansiyeline sahip olduğunu vurguluyor. 16 Aralık’a kadar Paul’ün 10 milyon doları aşmasını bekleyen yorumcular da, birçok eyalette Paul’ün sürpriz biçimde önde göründüğünü bildiriyorlar.

Ron Paul’ün hızlı yükselişinde, diğer yedi Cumhuriyetçi adayla yarıştığı televizyon tartışmalarının altısını açık farkla kazanması da etkili oldu. İnternette ismi en çok aranan, Youtube’da videoları en çok izlenen Cumhuriyetçi aday adayının Paul olduğu bildirildi. ABD’de herhangi bir partiye üye olmayan genç internet kullanıcılarını aykırı üslubuyla kendisine bağlayan 72 yaşındaki Paul, son düzlükte yaptığı sürpriz atağı sonuçlandırıp Giuliani ve Romney gibi favorileri geride bırakacak mı?

Hurriyet

---

LOL! They obviously mention his $4.2M fundraiser and a bit about Liberty Dollars.

They call him "The New Shooting Star of the Republican Party".

I guess we need to start MeetUps in Turkey. And in India too.

[MNJohnnie]

Paul's congressional office gets high marks for helping constituents receive their federal entitlement benefit

Paul is just another demagouge, saying one thing, doing the other

[MNJohnnie]

Boy talk about the sewer pipe accusing the garden hose of being dirty! You Paulbots have not yet made even ONE factual rational argument for your candidate. Instead you either sing endless, mindless paeans of praise about your god or scream bile at any hertics who dare question him!

Try actually making a rational argument one time for Der Paul. It would be a refreshing change from your obsequious, servile daily drivel.

You notice that you cannot make a rational argument for your candidate and instead lie about what the article actually says, this for example. Another example of Paul saying one thing and doing another..

Paul's congressional office gets high marks for helping constituents receive their federal entitlement benefit>

Then you Paulbots go into flaming hysteria and scream bile at anyone asking tough questions of your god, Der Paul, that neither he, nor you can answer.

Still waiting Paulbots.

HOW and What, would a Paul Administration do? No screaming hysteria, not slogans and trite childish bumper sticker slogans.

Offer up, with documentation, real specific plans, with real specific achievable goals Paul has promised to perform. So far all you people do is scream slogans and sound bite.

Not one of you have YET to present even one serious concrete proposal of how and what Paul would do.

For example:

"Paul will protect gun rights" Ok, how? What he going to do to achieve that? What Legislation has he proposed?

Or Abolish the IRS? How? What specifically will he do?

Fix the Border? How? What specifically will he do? Etc, etc etc etc etc etc etc

See unlike the screaming children that are the Paulbots, the rational adults around here recognize we are electing a President of a Constitutional Republic, not a god, not a dictator, but a President. They are not blinded by Paul's rabid demagoguery to Paul's fundamental unfitness to be President.

But keep throwing your money away on this Candidate to No Where Paulbots. I am sure he appreciates your donations to his retirement fund

[George W. Bush]

No congressmen gets re-elected if they neglect fundamental service to constituents. It's painful to realize that you are so stupid that you don't understand the difference between, on the one hand, ironing out the paperwork for a vet to get veteran's benefits or some old lady whose SS/Medicare paperwork is screwed up and, on the other hand, playing the pork-mongering earmarks game. Yes, Ron Paul certainly provides constituent services and opposes abuses of the earmark system, so much that he routinely votes against major portion of the federal budget because it is filled with porky earmarks.

Johnnie, you don't hurt us with such silly posts. You hurt your own credibility and make this forum look like its filled with idiots. I really can't imagine anyone who is so stupid they would actually believe what you wrote. I only hope you're making your typical Paul-hating screed and don't actually believe what you wrote.

Look, there are plenty of arguments you can muster against Ron Paul. Try to stick with ones that actually make sense to anyone.

I suppose I should welcome such attacks on RP because you make of yourself a strawman. But I don't like to see ignorant debate.

[George W. Bush]

But keep throwing your money away on this Candidate to No Where Paulbots. I am sure he appreciates your donations to his retirement fund.

Thank you. We will. But what will you say if we are the biggest Republican fundraiser in Q4 fundraising?

Posting to you always makes me feel like I'm typing input to an Eliza program or a Turing machine test.

I'm just watching the Stephie panel praising Ron Paul and discussing how he can determine the NH primary results. George Will made the panel discuss him again by referring to him as "My man, Ron Paul".

[MNJohnnie]

Slogans and self congratulatory ranting are not answers. Yet that is all you Paulbots have to offer us.

HERE is an example of an answer a serious Presidential Candidate would give. Notice NONE of Paul’s answers ever fit this format. Instead they are all mindless sloganeering and/or bile filled ranting at everyone and everything.

Slogans are not solutions. Electing a President is serious business and should not be treated like a high school popularity contest. See to answer “how” Paul would have to be saying something like this below. The whole problem with him is his whole campaign is based on misdirection and emotional hysteria, not a serious rational discussion of the issues of the day.

Paul might be taken seriously by thinking people if he said something like this instead of merely spewing slogans.

On Federal Spending. Federal Spending is out of control. To put our fiscal house in order my Administration will work with the Congress to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution. I will work with Congress to abolish base line budgeting, eliminate earmarks, impose strict pay as you go rules for new spending. In my 1st term, I will reduce the federal deficit to zero and return our Govt budget to surplus. To achieve that goal, I will impose a mandatory 2% increase cap on all executive agencies budgets, require a top to bottom review of all agency functions and work with the Congress to reduce or eliminate departments x-y-z.

That is just the 1st step. Serious budget reform can only take place when we reform both the tax code and the systems of entitlements we have created. There has been no serious Social Security or Medicare reform since the systems were created! Obvious a system that is 75 years old in one case, and 40 years old in the other are way over due for an overhaul.

To overhaul these systems I will introduce legislation to the Congress that will privatize the following parts of both the Medicare and Social Security systems...

That is an example of answers that tell us HOW a politician plans to do something. Nothing in PaulÂ’s campaign does any of this. All he does is spew reckless demagoguery based on Talk Radio culled slogans designed to push the emotional hot buttons of a certain fringe segments of the US population Too bad for them we don't elect a President simply for spewing the best sounding rhetoric on this emotional hot button issue or that one. We elect a President on the base of his whole agenda.

[George W. Bush]

Paul might be taken seriously by thinking people if he said something like this instead of merely spewing slogans.

Well, I could help to find out where you would apply to be a speechwriter for Ron Paul if you're looking for work. But he does write his own stuff. A lot of people still like hearing what a candidate thinks, warts and all.

Ron Paul's answers satisfy his supporters. Period. Same as any other candidate even if supporters of other candidates or the media find them lacking. Since you aren't a supporter and wouldn't support Ron Paul no matter what he says, then your "advice" isn't really worth that much even as a debate point.

I oppose Giuliani thoroughly for instance. So I wouldn't offer him advice and, if I did, I can't imagine he would take it seriously.

[fortheDeclaration]

Ron Paul has said that he would deal with the fiscal issues, by first pulling back U.S. forces that are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars and using that money to transition us out of Social Security, allowing the younger generation to opt out of it.

The ending of SS would be the overturning of the New Deal and would rank right up there with winning the Cold War.

For those who want to see his stance on the issues, here is a link.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/

Most of all a Ron Paul Presidency would send a message to Congress that the American people are serious about freedom, just as the election of Reagan did.