Posted on 12/26/2011 9:17:36 AM PST by TBBT
Congressman Ron Paul grabbed the lion's share of headlines among GOP presidential candidates last week, and not just because he is the latest improbable figure to challenge the inevitable nomination of Mitt Romney.
The conservative Weekly Standard ran a rehash by writer James Kirchik of an article he wrote for the New Republic in 2008 that collates, to deadly effect, the astoundingly bizarre, racist, and anti-Semitic comments Paul broadcast in a series of newsletters he published for two decades. Paul implausibly claims the newsletters (written in the first person and bearing his name) were produced by others, but it really doesn't matter. The time has come, as Kirchik helpfully reminds us, to recognize Paul for what he is.
He is not -- as some disillusioned moderates and media pundits like to believe -- a refreshing, small-government Republican with a healthy distaste for Wall Street and foreign adventurism. He is a clinically paranoid (and likely bigoted) conspiracy theorist. And you don't even have to cite his newsletters to prove it.
I paid some attention to Paul's 2008 campaign, because at the time I was assigned by my newspaper to cover two of his biggest fans: Ed and Elaine Brown, a pair of New Hampshire tax cheats who engaged in a months-long standoff with the U.S. Marshals Service over the couple's refusal to pay federal income taxes. The Browns believed they lived on a sovereign enclave atop a hill in rural Plainfield, N.H., stockpiled scary weapons, and threatened violence against any federal agents who came on their property.
You would think a presidential aspirant would want to distance himself from such wackos. Not Paul, who declared in a videotaped interview that the Browns were "heroes":
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.sfweekly.com ...
You won't be able to help yourself.
I am reminded of how Herman Cain was treated.
And Cain was ill-prepared for a presidential campaign.
Back to roll another blunt. And get a bag of Cheetos, too...
What smear have I jumped on so far oh brilliant one..?
Come on facts man facts....
What smear have I jumped on so far oh brilliant one..?
Come on facts man facts....
As far as I can tell, Paul is the only candidate in at least a generation in either party, actually attempting to accurately interpret the Constitution of the United States of America.
For real.
That’s certainly not something I have (ever) seen any liberal care one whit about.
Why don’t more Republicans?
Ron Paul is not a conspiracy nut .....Dick Cheney invaded his house and changed all his personal information for 4 straight years.
The guy is a menace and needs to go play with his grandkids and leave the rest of us alone.
Reasonable minds can differ.
My view is, if America hasn’t yet fallen with Obama trying to sabotage everything we hold dear.
America will be fine with Paul. Just fine.
I’m not actually rooting for Paul. My first choice Palin stood down. My second choice Cain was slimed.
Now I’m settling on Gingrich.
But there’s no need to deploy the nasty tactics of communist Saul Alinsky against a fellow Republican.
Paul may not be your cup of tea, but he’s at least earned the common decency of not being dishonestly accused of things which just are not accurate.
That’s what liberals do, and we don’t like it.
I wish we had a candidate who would reduce federal workforce by 10%,freeze federal spending to 2006 levels, repeal Obamacare , Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes Oxley,Audit the federal Reserve, Abolish the TSA, Eliminate Dept of Energy HUD,Commerce,Interior and Dept of Education.Lower corporate tax rate to 15% and stop Nation Building. Hell we do his name is Ron Paul.
A president can't do all that stuff by himself, and Ron Paul is NOT the only candidate proposing closing down federal agencies...but he is the nuttiest and most unelectable one.
Obama is doing what he wants by himself.This unelectable crap is getting old. Palin all her political life was said to be unelectable.Let the voter decide not the Political elites.
Romney is crazy! He wants to take our guns. He and his supporters are nuts.
Perry is nuts! He thinks a student from Iowa should pay higher tuition in Texas than an illegal from Mexico. Any supporter of his is wacko.
I guess it all depends on what a given poster thinks is crazy, wacko, or nuts.
All the candidates pretty much suck. I have to choose which I think is going to happen first--a total collapse of our country due to the financial mess, or whether the muzzies are going to blow us up. I think the potential of tyranny in our country due to the financial mess is more likely to happen sooner than the muzzies knocking us down.
I think it is crazy to keep voting for more of the same. And anybody currently running is more of the same, minus Ron Paul. Whether he could clean up the current mess before we all get blown to smithereenies is simply opinion. I guess we will find out soon enough.
Well said!
And Paul is unelectable because his foreign policy is insane.
This so reminds me of how Karl Rove treated Christine O’Donnell.
Say...
Is Rove working for Romney now?
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