What is the purpose of
Ron Paul's candidacy for the presidency of the United States? Some longshots
run because their egos demand it. Others want to raise their lecture
fees. Some run because they have plenty of money and nothing better
to do. Following a flood of viewer requests, the Texas congressman recently
appeared on Fox News to explain himself. His answer was buoyant though
laconic: "I want to be president because I have this dream. I'd
like to reinstate the Constitution and restore the Republic." His
answer was also revolutionary.
Having already initiated
a disastrous war against Iraq citing UN resolutions as justification,
this resolution is like déja-vu. Have we forgotten 2003 already?
Do we really want to go to war again for UN resolutions? That is where
this resolution, and the many others we have passed over the last several
years on Iran, is leading us. I hope my colleagues understand that a
vote for this bill is a vote to move us closer to war with Iran.
"As a congressman,
Ron Paul has been a leader in the fight to end illegal immigration.
He voted for a border fence, opposes the current Senate "compromise"
bill, and introduced legislation to end birth right citizenship. Dr.
Paul has consistently warned Americans about the looming menace of the
North American Union and is the only presidential candidate calling
for an end to welfare benefits, mandatory medical care and free education
for illegal aliens.
...why in the world would
she [Hillary Clinton] want to upset the applecart and face an unknown
commodity like Ron Paul? She has nothing to gain and everything to lose.
The expression "beware of the amateur" comes to mind. Not
that Ron Paul is an amateur but the principle applies just the same.
Hillary knows exactly what McCain will do and say, but she has no playbook
on Ron Paul. Nobody does. It’s an entirely unpredictable race.
She’d take McCain any day over the Great Unknown.
Now, consider the fact
that on the key issue of the campaign, the Iraq War, Ron Paul beats
Hillary. He voted against the war and she for it. On three other key
issues, the economy, immigration and health care, Ron Paul’s views
should fare quite well against Hillary’s.
GOP presidential candidate
Ron Paul's voice will be heard at the Iowa debates on June 30, even
though the event organizers have excluded him for not being a "serious"
or "electable" candidate.
Jan Mickelson of WHO
News Radio 1040 in Des Moines interviewed Ron Paul 2008 chairman Kent
Snyder about Ron Paul's exclusion from the upcoming candidates forum
sponsored by Iowans for Tax Relief and Iowa Christian Alliance. Ed Failor
of Iowans for Tax Relief joined the interview later to explain why his
group decided to keep Ron Paul out.
Let’s be perfectly
clear: the federal government has no business regulating speech in any
way. Furthermore, government as an institution is particularly ill-suited
to combating bigotry in our society. Bigotry at its essence is a sin
of the heart, and we can’t change people’s hearts by passing
more laws and regulations.
WASHINGTON - On Technorati,
which offers a real-time glimpse of the blogosphere, the most frequently
searched term this week was "YouTube."
Then comes "Ron
Paul."
The presence of the obscure
Republican congressman from Texas on a list that includes terms such
as "Sopranos," "Paris Hilton" and "iPhone"
is a sign of the online buzz building around the long-shot Republican
presidential hopeful -- even as mainstream political pundits have written
him off.
One must start with more
clearly defining what exactly it is that we're discussing here. What
is the "War on Terror?" Well, in basic terms we are talking
about terrorism. But not just the idea of terrorism - or a vague notion
that there is this terrorism out there in the world. No, we're talking
about something more concrete than that. The "War on Terror"
would be more plainly and more correctly identified as "Actions
or Measures Against Terrorists and to Prevent Terrorist Acts."
Ron Paul understands this and so doesn't concern himself with appealing
to fears or proposing actions against an entire concept.
And this source added,
“Of course, it’s hard to tell because the numbers keep changing
– and thus nobody at the campaign has a firm count, at least not
hour to hour. But the numbers are big. It’s definitely over three,
probably over four, and if it hasn’t hit five yet, it will soon.”
At this rate, say observers,
Ron Paul could have something like $10 million in his coffers inside
of several months, and the total could keep growing – so long
as he continues to hit on themes that Americans support – how
to return the country to a true, small government, constitutional republic
and how to end the war in Iraq.
And it seems to have
as much to do with his ideas – Paul, love him or hate him, articulates
a coherent ideology better than many of his competitors – as the
fact that he seems to inspire near pathological devotion in his followers.
Look at the press coverage: The Washington Post profiled Paul's young
campaign coordinator in New Hampshire; CNN.com today posted among its
top stories a piece about how Paul's fans inundated the site after the
recent presidential debate. He's even winning over Jon Stewart, who
had Paul on the "Daily Show" and said to him, "[y]ou
have accomplished no small feat, which is, you’re running for
President, very much as an underdog, yet you’ve created a nice
little buzz going about the Ron Paul candidacy."
One thing is for sure:
Ron Paul supporters are effective at coordinating and mobilizing online
quickly. For the three GOP debates so far, Paul has won or placed high
in most of the unscientific online surveys including ABC’s, MSNBC’s,
FOX’s, and unscientific polls conducted on a number of blogs.
Paul virtually swept
CNN’s unscientific survey after Tuesday night’s GOP debate:
not only did participants say Paul won the debate, but also that he
knew the most about the issues, had the best one-liner, had the most
surprising performance, and got the biggest boost from the debate. (He
wasn’t considered the snappiest dresser, however – see Mitt
Romney). The topic is getting some play on conservative blogs, too.
Ron Paul is not only the smart choice for President, but the only moral
choice.
To those who would chose
to stray away from the restraints of our Constitution, to those who
advocate endless entitlements and de-facto socialism, be warned: you
can give a man a fish and feed him for a day or you can teach a man
to fish and feed him for a lifetime. The masses fed by entitlements
are growing and getting hungrier by the minute. When will the current
establishment realize that eventually those of us who know how to fish
will be struggling to feed ourselves and our families?
Why Casting Your Ballot for Ron Paul Could Be More Than Simply a "Protest
Vote"
An increasing number
of Americans feel that our country is headed down the wrong path - that
our politicians are selling us out, that we're losing a cultural war
with widespread ramifications, and that we're a nation drifting away
from the rule of law - a nation of contradictions. Americans are growing
in their discontent with politics as usual, and with a run-away train
bureaucratic Leviathan that grows every four years whether Democrat
or Republican occupies the Oval Office. The bottom line is that our
country needs a leader like Ron Paul.
Could Ron Paul’s
freshest strategy be to keep showing up for all his party’s nominee
debates, bringing his message out over and over again… and then,
near the midnight hour, maybe suddenly say, You know what guys? I’m
booking. I’m going to run Third Party.
It was only two weeks
ago that 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul was listed at Sportsbook.com
with odds of 200 to 1. In fact, early in the month he was not even offered
on the political betting menu. My how things have changed in the past
month.
Of the 342 that participated
in the straw poll, Ron Paul received 310 votes (91%). David Terr of
USAElectionPolls.com did want to disprove the commonly held belief that
the reason Ron Paul does well in Internet polls is the result of spammers.
He says "the users voting in these polls come from all across the
United States. Fox News tried to suggest that Ron Paul's popularity
was confined to a group of friends in a dorm room who just click on
every poll. It could not be further from the truth."
With 70 percent of Americans
against the war in Iraq, he's the only Republican candidate who stands
a chance against the Democrats, because he's the only one that can draw
votes from the "center," and he's the only one that can come
across to a normal person as genuine and not a talking head.
His platform really speaks
for itself. His positions on the issues and his credentials are perfect
– classic conservativism like I haven't seen in years. Of the
candidates from either party, he's the only one that can make a believable
case that he would do his best to restore America to limited, constitutional
government.
“Ron Paul could
win in New Hampshire,” says a source close to the campaign. “It
would be an explosive political act – one that would devastate
the common wisdom. The mainstream media hasn’t realized it yet,
but folks in New Hampshire take him seriously.”
"Peace is a powerful
message," said Paul, speaking to Maher, along with fellow guests
Ben Afflect and P.J. O'Rourke. "Especially after the war has been
going on and the people wake up and realize how many people die and
how much it costs. And that's why i think people are really ready for
a message that says we don't have to be in this mess. Logic tells us
that we can make a better world in a much easier way than causing wars."
A star had just been
born when, a day after the May 15 Republican presidential debate in
South Carolina, I met Texas Representative Ron Paul for lunch on Capitol
Hill. The meeting had been scheduled for several days; but, as luck
would have it, the previous night Paul had gone from an oddball obscurity
to a major sensation in the political world when, answering a question
about September 11, he seemed to suggest that the attacks were justified
by an aggressive U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
Congressman Ron Paul
(R-Tex) was in good form on Bill Maher’s Real Time program on
HBO, broadcast at 11PM EST, May 25. Sometimes a stiff speaker, he appeared
animated, even enthusiastic, belying his reputation as a dour “Dr.
No” for voting against the many unconstitutional bills in Congress.
...regardless of where
you stand on Iraq or the 'War on Terror', Ron Paul is a true conservative
who supports less government, family values, protecting our 1st and
2nd amendment rights, lower taxes and less government intrusion, and
restoring a sound economic policy to foment stability and growth! Perhaps
most importantly, Ron Paul believes in enforcing our constitutional
laws - and that includes securing our borders; not giving amnesty to
20,000,000 illegal immigrants (something our Republican frontrunners
and Democratic frontrunners BOTH support).
Representative Ron Paul,
the Texas Republican who is running for president, may be barely registering
in public opinion polls, but his supporters are making their presence
known on the Internet. They were particularly energized after the second
Republican debate, held last week in South Carolina....Mr. Paul’s
followers responded with support, in all the ways by which success is
measured in cyberspace: in online polls about who won the debate, in
the numbers of friends on MySpace and viewings of videos on YouTube.
His was the most-searched name on Technorati, ahead of Paris Hilton’s.
ARLINGTON, VA –
The United Republicans of California (UROC) have unanimously endorsed
Congressman Ron Paul for president of the United States. UROC, formed
in 1963 to support Barry Goldwater, represents the traditional conservative
wing of the California Republican Party.
Following a groundswell
of bets coming in on 2008 US Presidential candidate, Ron Paul, Sportsbook.com
has reacted by slashing his odds to win in half.
Saul Anuzis said over
the weekend that he won't circulate a petition among Republican National
Committee members to ban Paul from more debates...."After consulting
with my fellow RNC members, I believe there isn't anything to be gained
by advancing a petition aimed solely at removing Congressman Paul from
the debates," Anuzis wrote in his daily blog Saturday. "The
primary is and will continue to work itself out."
Pat Buchanan writes:
When Ron Paul said the
9-11 killers were "over here because we are over there," he
was not excusing the mass murderers of 3,000 Americans. He was explaining
the roots of hatred out of which the suicide-killers came....Ron Paul
was addressing was the question of what turned the allies we aided into
haters of the United States. Was it the fact that they discovered we
have freedom of speech or separation of church and state? Do they hate
us because of who we are? Or do they hate us because of what we do?
Ronald Reagan once said
that libertarianism is "the very heart and soul of conservatism"
(Reagan was great at communicating the princples of limited government,
if less great at actually implementing them). Of all the candidates
so far declared, only Paul can credibly lay claim to the legacy of the
Reagan-Goldwater revolution.
At the most recent Republican
debate, Paul not only repeated his opposition to the illegal and unconstitutional
war, but he also identified 50 years of U.S. intervention in the Middle
East as "a major contributing factor" in al-Qaeda's attacks
in 2001.
Ron Paul interrupted
the worship of establishment-selected candidates by winning the debate's
own poll and forcing FOX to cover the mere "second-tier" candidate--
a distinction mainstream media have been using to marginalize those
outside of direct control...Sean Hannity stated his "surprise"
that Ron Paul was leading with 30% of the FOX News text-message poll
vote, despite that fact that he also won the Republican debates on MSNBC--
a fact which the media under-reported and even censored.
First, Giuliani must
be an idiot to not have heard Paul's rationale before. That issue has
been raised countless times in the last six years by any number of experts....Second,
when we finish with our emotional response, it would behoove us to actually
think about what Paul said and make the effort to understand his rationale.
Paul offers
not only a coherent alternative to the crazed foreign policy views of
the neocons, but also one that has deep roots in the GOP....As I have
argued at length over the years, the anti-imperialist legacy of the
Old Right is ready for a revival, and the neocons are deathly afraid
of it...
Paul was one of six House
of Representatives Republicans who voted against the 2002 authorization
to use force in Iraq, based on the same wariness of excessive international
involvement that long guided Republican foreign-policy thinking. Traceable
to George Washington's warning against entangling foreign alliances,
its post-World War II followers -- including "Mr. Republican"
Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio -- likely would share Paul's view of President
Bush's adventures in democratic nation-building as muddleheaded folly.
According to a Des Moines
Register poll, Mitt Romney has taken the lead in the Republican presidential
campaign, moving ahead of John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. Free-market
candidate Ron Paul did not generate poll numbers that allowed him to
be ranked...Such polling does not recognize Internet popularity, however.
Ron Paul (R-TX) is "leading the pack" on the Internet at sites
such as YouTube and MeetUP, despite low regional polls by mainstream
media outlets.
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