Posted on 02/01/2008 8:12:50 PM PST by JOAT
I went to the Ron Paul rally tonight to get a sense of the candidate and the people who support him. The venue was the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. The hall was packed, standing room only. I would estimate over 3,000. I didn't expect to find that many people on a Friday evening. (Event time was 6:00-7:30pm)
The session was opened with a prayer then the usual string of self-congratulatory speeches by various campaign workers.
Dr. Paul got up to speak and because the Rally coincided with his 51st wedding anniversary, he spent a few moments praising his wife and family. The bulk of the hour was spent talking about the importance of the Constitution (imagine that from any other candidate) and how we as a nation have strayed so far from the principles enshrined in that document.
It was interesting to me to see the eclectic mix of people cheering the Constitution. From nasty dreadlocked hippies to men in business suits. Long time party activists to first time politicos. The majority of the people in the crowd were very young idealistic student types, but all age groups were represented. (It seemed odd to me that the 20-somethings were the biggest component in this crowd for some reason.)
The only common denominator was that the crowd was yearning for freedom.
To the hippies this of course means smoking pot with impunity. To the business owner this means keeping government regulation out of his business. To the conservative constitutionalist this means shrinking the government to its boundaries as defined by the document.
As I sat in the back of the auditorium and watched the crowd it was informative to observe who cheered and when. There were some who I noted had a hard time cheering during certain parts of the speech, but would cheer wildly at other times.
The crowd convulsed when 'a certain candidate' (Dr. Paul never mentioned McCain's name) was quoted as saying the US might need to stay in Iraq another 100 years.
The people running the campaign seemed to understand that the idealism of the youth was not translating into effective grass roots campaign work, therefore instructions regarding caucus attendance and becoming precinct committee people were touched upon. Ron Paul also echoed this, essentially saying that regardless of how his campaign went, the people in the room needed to stay involved in the process afterwards to keep the government from straying further away from the founders intent.
Super Tuesday will determine, in all likelihood, that the Republican Party will select a RINO candidate this year. Too bad.
The Constitution was a beautiful thing.
‘Reynolds Wrap was flying off the shelves, it was amazing...’
Ron Paul draws big Denver crowd
"He's catching on, I'm tellin' ya!"
When that wasn't enough hundreds of people stood rimming the hall that sits 1,536.
I can attest that were nearly as many people around the edges and filling every aisle that 3000 was close.
You believe we should retreat from everywhere on this planet?
No I don't. I posted a report from a rally.
He's among the Final Four candidates. He's outlasted Giuliani and Thompson.
Put that in your crack pipe and smoke it.
Maybe, can anyone name a Candidate, a Republican Candidate, who actually inspires young people?
Lol. See this?
At McCain Speech, a Paul Rally Breaks Out
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/02/01/at_mccain_speech_a_paul_rally.html
I dislike Ron Paul but you do have a point. There are plenty of countries I’d love have to the US military leave, let them experience the real world without the American security blanket.
The economic advantage that we have is based on the stability we maintain. We cant afford to not to do it without chopping our GDP. I say this only because you brought up cost.
Vote for Osama then,,
What do you think?
How deeply is the US Federal Govt, and by extension, the US Taxpayer, in debt kinoxi?
What is it now? 45 trillion?
How long can we pay for our role as global cop? And we I say “we” I mean us, the Joe Average taxpayer.
This highlights the problem I have with Paul. I like him on several levels. But I’m supposed to cheer when he suggests we shouldn’t maintain a military presence in the Middle East? We had better darn well maintain a presence in a lot of places. These are our sworn enemies. They are on the attack all over the world. We have a right, indeed a mandate, for self-defense. And self-defense doesn’t just occur within our own borders.
It would be fine with me if we were in there for 100 years. Whatever it takes to get the job done. No apologies.
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