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ULTRAMAN VH
05-16-2007, 07:33 AM
Rep. Ron Paul casts himself as alternative candidate in GOP race
By Matt Stearns
McClatchy Newspapers

Handout
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX/14th)
WASHINGTON - It's a fine line between quixotic and committed, and just where Ron Paul falls is an open question as the Texas congressman pursues the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.


The case for quixotic: It's a unique conceit to run as an anti-Iraq-war candidate in a generally pro-war party; to vow to eliminate myriad federal agencies, including the CIA, the IRS and the Federal Reserve; and to oppose every act of the federal government not specifically approved in the Constitution (including niceties such as congressional gold medals for such people as Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks and Pope John Paul II).


"I've advocated over the years the elimination of most big-government things I can't find in the Constitution," Paul said in an interview.


Trying to explain that during a recent presidential debate, Paul said, "I'm a strong believer in original intent" of the Constitution's framers. To which moderator Chris Matthews, the MSNBC television personality, responded with a disdainful, "Oh, God."


The case for committed: If somebody needs to drag the Republican Party back to its roots, Paul said, "I'm offering that alternative."


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.


"He touches a nerve out there," said Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas. "There are Republicans who believe it was a mistake to get in there to begin with, and that's the Paul constituency."


The rest of Paul's platform is a jet-fueled version of the small-government, low-tax conservatism espoused by Barry Goldwater, whose principled stands became the foundation of the modern GOP. It's what the nine other declared Republican presidential candidates all claim to want, too, even though none dares follow Paul's embrace of its stronger features.


"He's performing an enormously valuable service," said Michael Tanner, author of "Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution." "His very existence on the stage pressures the others. There is a small-government, libertarian conservative base in the Republican Party. It may or may not be as big as the religious right. It's open for the taking."




Yet it's that unwavering commitment to principle - no matter where it takes him - that so unsettles Washington insiders who dismiss Paul as a bothersome gadfly.


After the debate, Beltway pundit Gloria Borger opined: "It's hard to look presidential when you're sharing the stage with the likes of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who gives new meaning to the question asked by Ross Perot's former running mate, Adm. James Stockdale: `Who am I? Why am I here?'"


("Their problem," Paul said. "Not my problem. Who are they to set the standard?")




Who he is: An Air Force veteran, Duke-educated ob-gyn who has delivered, by his estimation, more than 4,000 babies. A 10-term member of the House, making him among the most politically experienced of the presidential candidates. A savvy enough politician to ensure that Texas' 14th congressional district gets its share of federal loot, including those earmarks that many conservatives despise.


"I'm their representative," Paul said. "If they say, `We need A, B, C,' I pass their requests on. ... We have every right in the world to get back what we send."




Whippet-thin, with intense hang-dog eyes, the 71-year-old Paul comes across as a loopily enthusiastic professor, voice rising in pitch and pace, arms waving, as he delves into pet issues, especially the folly of taking the country off the gold standard (which sparked his initial interest in politics).


"Kind of quirky," Tanner said. "He has some issues that give him a fringe-y air."




Paul ran once before for president, as the Libertarian Party's nominee in 1988. He won about 450,000 votes, good for third place and about 0.5 percent of the vote.


Ever iconoclastic, Paul strays from Libertarian Party orthodoxy on the issue of abortion (he opposes abortion rights). But the party has no hard feelings for its former nominee: "We love Ron Paul," gushed Shane Cory, the party's executive director. "He's one of the best congressmen on the Hill."


But on the presidential campaign trail, Paul lags at 1 or 2 percent in polls. Even so, he has some things going for his unlikely bid.




He's positively huge in cyberspace, a virtual nation teeming to embrace Paul's leave-me-the-hell-alone approach. Paul's MySpace page lists more than 12,000 friends, trailing only Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney among Republican presidential hopefuls. That popularity helped catapult Paul to victories in several online polls after the debate. And lately he's been the No. 1 search subject at technorati.com, a blog search engine.




Paul also has raised enough real-world money to stay in the race for a while. Thanks to a network of donors cultivated through years of nationally distributed libertarian writings, Paul has out-raised some of the more "mainstream" candidates. His $640,000 first-quarter haul placed him a respectable - if distant - sixth among the 10 announced Republican candidates.


Enough to finance a winning campaign? Unlikely. But probably enough to ensure Paul's continued presence as a sort of Ghost of Conservatism Past, causing uncomfortable moments for any other candidate trying to claim the conservative mantle.


And as the war becomes less popular, as conservative Republican primary voters wonder just what the Bush administration was doing nationalizing education policy (through the No Child Left Behind Act) and expanding entitlements (through the Medicare prescription drug benefit), Paul will tout his small-government bona fides.


"I'm very reluctant to have any grandiose predictions. ... I don't know what the future will bring," Paul said. "I know the message is powerful. There's no limitations on the philosophy of freedom. People are begging for it."


---


For more information on Ron Paul, go to www.ronpaul2008.com

Nickdfresh
05-16-2007, 07:41 PM
I just saw an interview with him on CNN with Wolf Blitzer where he severally bitch-slaps Rudolf Giuliani for being a phony-baloney on terrorism (for not reading the 9/11 Commission Report for instance) and a total fucking schill of the piss poor Iraq War policies...

In fact, he sounded more like Noam Chomsky than an ultraconservative libertarian. But I like him...

DEMON CUNT
05-16-2007, 07:49 PM
What the hell?

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Nickdfresh
05-16-2007, 07:51 PM
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AD7dnFDdwu0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AD7dnFDdwu0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Here's from the debate (which I didn't watch). I have no idea how it relates to a supposed testy exchange with Douchiani over Ron being a 'Jihadist' or something gay like that...

Nickdfresh
05-16-2007, 07:55 PM
Yup! It's all there....

DEMON CUNT
05-16-2007, 07:57 PM
Originally posted by Nickdfresh
he sounded more like Noam Chomsky...

Wow. No shit! I am totally fucking shocked by this guy.

Nickdfresh
05-16-2007, 08:00 PM
Might have the first Republican primary I bother to vote in in six years...

DEMON CUNT
05-16-2007, 08:04 PM
Fucking Giuliani thinks he owns 911. What an ass.

Do you see how uncomfortable neocons get when the ugly truth is revealed?

DEMON CUNT
05-16-2007, 08:12 PM
Check this shit out:

FOX NEWS: You Decide: Viewers Say Who Won Tuesday Night's GOP Presidential Debate (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272493,00.html)

GOP Debate Text-Vote Results

— 29% Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney

— 25% Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas

— 19% Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Nickdfresh
05-16-2007, 08:18 PM
Originally posted by DEMON CUNT
Fucking Giuliani thinks he owns 911. What an ass.



Well, he has profited handsomely from it. So I can see where the cuntfusion comes from...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05102007/news/regionalnews/11m_gift_of_gab_regionalnews_maggie_haberman____an d_carl_campanile.htm

Satan
05-16-2007, 09:31 PM
Paul has been consistently against the PNAC foreign policy from day one, and for that he has this Devil's respect. But he also subscribes to the hardcore Libertarian fairy tale that the federal government shouldn't be any larger today than it was in 1787.

He's going to have to be more realistic domestically if he wants to be a serious candidate.

ULTRAMAN VH
05-18-2007, 06:44 PM
Love Him or Loathe Him, Ron Paul Speaks his Mind
Friday, May 18, 2007
Ron Smith






My, my, folks are all exercised about that now fabled exchange between Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul at the South Carolina GOP presidential debate.



I haven’t had many, shall we say, temperate remarks from my correspondents. They are either really pissed at me for not understanding the greatness of the former NYC mayor and thinking that the Texan Paul made some good points about the causes of 9/11, or they’re very grateful that we’ve exposed our listeners to Ron Paul’s analyses of how far the Republican Party has strayed from its traditional conservatism and the teachings of the founding framers.



As you might or might not know, Big Media jealously safeguards the status quo, ridiculing anyone who might, Like Dr. Paul, call into question the basic precepts of modern federal government, which include agreement by everyone who can be taken seriously that the U.S. is a special nation, a gift to the world, tasked with making sure that all other nations defer to it and, above all, do what we tell them to do, or else.



We’ve also been told for the last several years that the Arab hijackers attacked us because they hated our freedom. Our president and other authority figures have made this a mantra, but Ron Paul stands there with nine other GOP presidential hopefuls and has the gonads to say he thinks we ought to consider the real reasons for Arab and Islamic resentment of the United States, which include all those years of sanctions and bombings that that killed many thousands of Iraqis during the 1990s.



What happened then is said by Pat Buchanan to be the decisive moment of the debate, as Rudy Giuliani “broke format and exploded:”



“That’s really an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of 9/11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve ever hears that before, and I’ve hears some pretty bizarre explanations for Sept 11.”



Rudy then asked Ron Paul to withdraw his remark, a demand that elicited thunderous applause from the party faithful in the audience. The former mayor won the favor of those in the audience, but to the surprise and dismay of the guardians of what is, Ron Paul, judging by the Online polling of the host network, Fox News, made quite the impression on huge numbers of those watching on television.



Or, maybe not, maybe the strong numbers Dr. Paul gets after his debate appearances are no more than the result of his supporters flooding the polling web site with multiple responses. After all, the ability of people to skew this kind of polling is the reason they’re called “unscientific.”



We must remember that in the “scientific” polls, he ranks near the bottom in the list of Republican candidates. (More here).



Whatever the case, to me it’s just refreshing to see a man of principle stand tall and unafraid in the face of being called a party apostate and traitor and calmly state his case before a hostile audience. It’s uncharacteristic of modern politicians because it represents actually bravery as opposed to crowd-pleasing bravado.



Ron Paul disturbs the powers-that-be who wants him excluded from future debates. Sean Hannity is beside himself that Fox viewers adjudged Paul to be the winner of the Tuesday night debate. Wolf Blitzer can’t seem to believe what’s happening. Chris Matthews is perplexed at the positive response to Paul’s radical idea that Republicans ought to return to their actual conservative, constitutional roots.



I simply love it.


www.wbal.com

FORD
05-18-2007, 07:35 PM
I didn't actually watch the debate, but I heard that FAUX's poll was vote by cell phone, NOT an online poll, so the results were probably accurate.

Of course that doesn't mean that it was only the typical FAUX audience watching the debate or making the phone calls either.

steve
05-19-2007, 09:21 AM
:confused: for PRESIDENT???? :confused:

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/gloriusmom/RuPaul.jpg

DEMON CUNT
05-20-2007, 06:59 PM
More from Ron Paul!

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Nickdfresh
05-20-2007, 07:47 PM
Originally posted by Satan
Paul has been consistently against the PNAC foreign policy from day one, and for that he has this Devil's respect. But he also subscribes to the hardcore Libertarian fairy tale that the federal government shouldn't be any larger today than it was in 1787.

He's going to have to be more realistic domestically if he wants to be a serious candidate.

I agree. The hardcore Libertarian political theory is something akin to Marxist-Leninism to me...

Great in theory, but completely disastrous in practice and impossible to achieve. Corporations would merely step in where the gov't relinquished its authority, benefiting no one but the plutocracy...

Nickdfresh
05-20-2007, 07:48 PM
Huh! This might be the best thread Ultragirl has ever started! Uhuhuhuhuhuh!

ULTRAMAN VH
05-21-2007, 06:26 AM
Thanks for the compliment, Dicknfresh!!! I just like his stance on smaller government. Ron Paul is a much needed breath of fresh air in politics. I really like the fact that he is becoming a thorn in the side of the elites, both Dems and republicans.

Nickdfresh
05-21-2007, 10:08 PM
Originally posted by ULTRAMAN VH
Thanks for the compliment, Dicknfresh!!! I just like his stance on smaller government. Ron Paul is a much needed breath of fresh air in politics. I really like the fact that he is becoming a thorn in the side of the elites, both Dems and republicans.

Um. He's a doctor Ultraspermbank. He's sorta one of the "elites."

ULTRAMAN VH
05-25-2007, 08:36 AM
Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Um. He's a doctor Ultraspermbank. He's sorta one of the "elites."

YEAH, vagina and small government are his top priorities, he's got my vote!!!

FORD
05-25-2007, 09:40 AM
Fuck the "centrist" corporatist "Unity 08" scam.

How about a REAL Unity 08 ticket...

Mike Gravel/Ron Paul 2008.

Gravel does the domestic policy Paul does the foreign policy.

DEMON CUNT
05-26-2007, 08:53 PM
From Real Time With Bill Maher.

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Big Train
05-28-2007, 06:29 AM
So ,

Are you guys conservatives at heart or is Ron Paul just a third party candidate in Republican attire?

Bill Maher was all in a lather over him (as was his sea lion audience, barking along with him).

I found the whole thing odd, because if Maher pressed him on any other issue besides the one he happens to absolutely agree with him on, the lovefest would be over.

hideyoursheep
05-28-2007, 08:18 AM
This Ron Paul seems about as republican as LIEberman is an Independent.






Not that it's a bad thing...

Nickdfresh
05-28-2007, 10:23 AM
Originally posted by Big Train
...

I found the whole thing odd, because if Maher pressed him on any other issue besides the one he happens to absolutely agree with him on, the lovefest would be over.

Probably true. But Paul is at least an honorable and consistent man on the issues. His 'talking points' come from core ideological beliefs that he sees as the truth, not from pandering.

I don't agree with his extreme libertarian views either, but I agree that he speaks his mind, not some cynical elect-me-whore mindset...

DrMaddVibe
05-28-2007, 11:12 AM
I think that if elected his Libertarian whack ideas will be checked by both parties, or they'll take the best of them. Either way, he's by far the best candidate out there in BOTH parties!

DEMON CUNT
05-28-2007, 11:41 AM
Originally posted by Big Train
So ,

Are you guys conservatives at heart or is Ron Paul just a third party candidate in Republican attire?

Bill Maher was all in a lather over him (as was his sea lion audience, barking along with him).

I found the whole thing odd, because if Maher pressed him on any other issue besides the one he happens to absolutely agree with him on, the lovefest would be over.

Ron Paul has my attention because of his focused views on foreign policy and his understanding of the impact of Bush's current policies.

So far he's my favorite of the bunch (both Dem and Rep)!

His honesty during the debate (and refusing to back down from that bitch Giuliani) was quite refreshing.

DLR'sCock
05-29-2007, 02:02 PM
I am impressed by his honesty, and he is correct to quite a degree on foreign policy.

Nickdfresh
09-06-2007, 07:42 AM
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Republicans, Ron Paul clash over Iraq war; candidates greet Thompson's bid with barbed humor

By LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press Writer

DURHAM, N.H. (AP) _ Republican presidential contenders voiced support for the Iraq war Wednesday night despite a warning from anti-war candidate Ron Paul that they risk dragging the party down to defeat in 2008.

"Even if we lose elections, we should not lose our honor," shot back former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, "and that is more important than the Republican Party."...

The Rest. (http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070906/NEWS81/70906002)

FORD
09-06-2007, 10:33 AM
If we could put Paul in front of foreign policy, and Kucinich in charge of the domestic agenda, that would be a true "unity" ticket.