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Honesty and Integrity...
2007-08-27 09:28:00
...the issues that carry the day. The following is a splendid blog post that deserves sharing.How and Why I Picked My 2008 CandidateI am not someone who, by nature, trusts those in power. Power corrupts people; I have seen this to be true. The very first requirement for me to ever get excited about a political candidate or office holder is they MUST have integrity and a sense of duty to the people. It is frustrating watching so many national politicians take turns going down in flames, their dirty little secrets out: bribes and corruption; moral scandals; flip-flopping and selling their votes. It's tough to find real integrity. I think maybe Obama has it. Not completely sure, but I'm trusting his record and his words for now. I think McCain has done a good job voting his conscience from what I can see. But the man that has stood out to me the most in the integrity department this election is, far and away, Ron Paul. I respect Obama, but I don't agree with him on many socialist id...
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Video - Ron Paul: A Man for All Seasons
2007-08-25 22:24:00
My video just went live on Google:
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On the Ground in Iowa, Part II
2007-08-25 20:35:00
Two weeks have passed since my last post, from Iowa . I meant to follow up with another right away, but have been busy with, among other things, creating a video about Dr. Paul which I just uploaded. It should appear on Google Video soon (too long for YouTube).There has been a lot of good stuff written by others already, so I'll keep it short. Here are my belated conclusions about Iowa:There are two kinds of votes cast in the straw poll - votes for ideas and votes for festival. The former are tougher to get while the latter only require putting on a good show and serving a better plate of barbeque than the next tent. I found the atmosphere to be more carnival-like than I expected. It's been reported that Mitt Romney spent over two millions dollars on this thing, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it was actually more than that. From the looks of it Brownback probably spent about as much as he had, and I don't think there will be enough gas in his tank to go a lot further.O...
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On the Ground in Iowa
2007-08-10 04:18:00
Because flights from Seattle to Des Moines are horrifically expensive, I chose instead to take a red-eye flight into Minneapolis this morning and drive down to Ames, Iowa , where the big straw poll will be held Saturday the 11th. On arrival I snuck in a quick cat nap, then set out to survey the scene. Here are my observations thus far:Committees for the candidates are starting to set up their tents, etc., and it's interesting to see how each group is handling things. Most of the visible activity for Ron Paul is being done by volunteers from local MeetUp groups and others who have come from all around the country. I've been surprised at how many people I've met who have traveled great distances to be here for the cause. Of course, none of us out-of-staters can vote in the poll, but there are lots and lots of us helping get things done. The grassroots volunteer effort for Paul is pretty astounding. This is an element that is not accounted for in typical reports focusing on money rai...
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So What Did We Learn from the Debate?
2007-08-05 19:50:00
We learned that eight of the nine Republicans on the stage in Iowa this morning...Want a "stronger" military. How much stronger can we possibly be? Isn't spending a trillion dollars a year enough? If the biggest and most technologically advanced military force in the world isn't strong enough now, what in God's name will it take - a bomb the size of the Earth? A Deathstar?Believe we're at war with radical Islam. Radical Islam has been around awhile, guys. If we define the conflict as a war against an extreme fundamentalist religion then I guess we can expect to be surging for the next thousand years or so. Apparently none of the eight are satisfied with fighting terrorist groups like al-Qaeda (remember, the ones that actually attacked us?). I guess that would be a sign of weakness.Tell us more government is bad, and oh the great things they'll do if elected! From ending breast cancer in 10 years to universal health insurance, to replacing bridges and building families, and ever...
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Two Myths: Ron Paul's Chances and Isolationism
2007-08-03 15:53:00
There are many great columnists writing in support of Ron Paul's positions. A number of them, unfortunately, feel compelled to preface their comments with "He won't be the President, but...". There is no real basis for such extreme pessimism at this juncture. Both Carter and Clinton were polling in the very low single digits at this stage. When Reagan first ran, few took him seriously. There are many such stories of outsider candidates defying early expectations.The reason for the downplaying of Paul's chances isn't his numbers in conventional polls, or even his sensational divergence from the establishment. It's simply a desire on the part of pundits to avoid winding up with egg on their faces if indeed the Paul campaign doesn't pan out. Nobody wants to look foolish in retrospect, so they hedge their positive opinion of Paul's positions with just enough realpolitik cynicism that they can later rebut allegations of naïveté. It's a version of Pascal's Wager: "I don't know w...
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Another One
2007-08-01 16:19:00
Is it possible the Republican Party doesn't yet see that without Paul their fate is sealed in '08? How long can the strategists deny it? As nutty as it may sound, I am seriously considering registering Republican. XDThe reason for doing that, of course, would be in order to vote for Ron Paul in the primary! I was thinking about it before, since I'd have to update my voter registration now that I've moved to a different county. But, my dad brought it up again in a recent e-mail, so here I am thinking about it again.Part of me feels like I should just stay Democrat, and try to stop the Hillary train and get the best candidate through on that side of things, but in an ideal world, I should be able to support the candidate I like, and things will turn out well. That's how it *should* work, right? People shouldn't have to plan a strategy about how to vote. It's hard enough getting people to vote in the first place. :pThe thing that struck me recent me about Ron Paul is the kind of...

National Review, Redeemed
2007-08-01 15:11:00
After The Derb's pessimistic 'if-only-it-weren't-impossible' column on Ron Paul the other day, National Review Online columnist Todd Seavey counters with a piece that is courageous, eloquent and penetrating. His sentiments are right in line with my own. I promise not to employ any silly phrases like "audacity of hope", but his column is exactly what conservatives need to hear. I think the next six months are going to prove Mr. Sealy's prescience on this subject. From his "Fusion Candidate":Paul?s greatest obstacle is the Republican primary process. Since he wants to do virtually everything conservatives have long dreamed of with the office of the presidency, what?s stalling his chances is a herd-like desire to vote for the candidate who already seems likely to win the primaries. Democrats won?t keep him from the White House; it would be tragic, then, if Republicans stopped him themselves.Recall, first, the big issue that likely cost the Republicans control of Congress in 2006 a...
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Oh Andrew...Derb...
2007-08-01 07:33:00
What?s gotten into you both? Are the two of you really that jaded? Are you engaging in protective pessimism to shield yourself from a possible crushing disappointment? I want to know what?s going on. It?s as if you?ve never seen a long shot pull off something amazing. Where?s your pluck? Where are your contrarian instincts?We have a long way to go yet in this race. May I suggest that the ?Ron Paul can?t win,? and ?Ain?t gonna happen? talk is a tad premature? Perhaps it would be wise to wait, at least until after the Iowa straw poll August 11th, before consigning him to the political graveyard?Which of you would have guessed at this stage in the primary game that a UFO-reporting peanut farmer with name recognition idling at 2% and an outsider?s gripe against the establishment would go on to win both the semis and the finals? I?ve read that as late as January of election year, a Gallup poll had Carter at 4%. Examples of election surprises abound. Let?s not be too hasty to call this on...
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The Number One Political Issue...
2007-07-29 08:53:00
During the early 20th Century, official photographic portraits of American Presidents began to lose their gravitas. The trend started with Hoover's subtle smirk and hit a milestone with Kennedy's boyish display of teeth. It wasn't long before the pictures ceased to evince so much as a whiff of businesslike solemnity. Square, clenched jaws became a memory as they gave way to loose and impish grins.I will guess that this trend mirrored the overall decline of seriousness in politics. Today it ought to be clear to all that our modern President has in every important respect adopted the manner of bureau chief of the Las Vegas tourism office. A nudge and a wink and coquettish hints at narrow escapes from public ignominy made confidential between Saturday night Mephistophelians has supplanted whatever measure of plain talk and pugnacity may have once filled the public square. What Happens in Washington Stays in Washington, would be an apt slogan to imprint under the seal of office.This ...
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Discussion with Kent Snyder
2007-07-29 08:32:00
Ron Paul's National Campaign Manager, Kent Snyder , interviewed:
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Nice presentation
2007-07-26 06:06:00
One of the better videos to emerge from early on:
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Once Upon a Time I Believed...
2007-07-25 05:13:00
The following bit of introspection is as trenchant as it is concise. Its author reminds us what conservatism means and why it means what it does. An intuitive distrust of and aversion to the grand plans of government is as American as it gets. --DMAs we're discussing "The Great War and Modern Memory" on the DMN Book Club blog, I was reflecting on Paul Fussell's stage-setting observation, namely that no one prior to World War I could have conceived of how many illusions it would shatter by the time it ended. Of course the Iraq War is nothing compared to the civilization-shattering phenomenon of the Great War. Still, I reflected on what things I believed at the onset of the war, that I no longer do as a result of the war. A short list:1. Having been absolutely certain that the war was the right thing to have done, and that we would prevail easily, I am no longer confident that I can discern when emotion is affecting my judgment unduly.2. I no longer implicitly trust governmental ins...
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The Military Loves Dr. Paul
2007-07-24 06:06:00
He is the candidate with the most military donations in the second quarter. That's a significant piece of news. From The Nation:Recently, the Federal Election Commission released its July quarterly figures on contributions to presidential candidates--and Congressman Ron Paul of Texas modestly made the news because the libertarian candidate managed to pull in more money than that military icon (and war supporter) Senator John McCain for the quarter and so slipped into third place in the Republican presidential dollars sweepstakes. Since Paul garners but 2 to 3 percent of the vote in recent presidential opinion polls (up from 1 percent earlier in the year), this was certainly striking in itself--an effect perhaps of his exposure in the ongoing presidential TV debates where he manages, on Iraq among other subjects, to sound like neither a Republican Tweedledum, nor Tweedledee. A New York Times analysis piece by Jeff Zeleny, for instance, commented: The only Republican in the race wh...
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Random Thoughts on Foreign Policy
2007-07-23 06:41:00
Ron Paul recently appeared on the Mike Gallagher radio show, during which Mr. Gallagher asked him whether he thought most of his support was coming from those who believe the assertion that 9/11 was a government conspiracy. It's an absurd claim that Paul has never come close to making, so the latent insinuation embedded in the question is very strange. Paul isn't accusing anyone of wanting attacks to happen or of actually "staging" them. What he has said in essence is that there is a propensity for politicians and military leaders to see what they want to see and to capitalize on incidents?real or perceived?after the fact to ratchet up to larger goals. Giuliani didn't stage 9/11 but "America's Mayor" has certainly taken advantage of it to the fullest extent.I was among those who, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, found some currency in the idea that we should go into Iraq if they had a bomb and could be dealing with al-Qaeda. Neither turned out to be true, and senior officials...
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If Jimmy, Michael, Bill, and John Could Do It, Why Can?t Ron?
2007-07-11 15:13:00
The following excellent post was written by Eric Langborgh, author of Borg Blog. It's better analysis in my opinion than most of what passes for same on television or in newspapers. ?DMI just found this interesting list of facts concerning polls and presidential politics over at LewRockwell.com, and I think it is worth exploring here: At this point in the cycle, national polls are entirely a reflection of name identification, not voters? views of the candidates.?In early 1975, Carter was polling at 1% (he went on to win the Presidency).?In early 1987, Dukakis was polling at 1% (he went on to win the Democratic nomination).?In early 1991, Clinton was at 2% (he went on to win the Presidency).?In the spring of 1999, John McCain was polling at 3% (he went on to win the NH primary).?The common refrain from the Establishment - of either Party - is to dismiss candidates that challenge the status quo. The basis for this dismissal is the polls. The media engages in the same dismissal, attem...
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Standing Up to be Counted in the Most Important Tally
2007-07-11 08:08:00
When Ron Paul first announced his candidacy my initial thought was that I hoped he would be able to get into a few debates and put his message in front of the American people for whatever duration fate allowed. If he succeeds in this, I thought, it will have been a nice little reminder of the traditional conservatism that my country used to celebrate; in the same way an old retired fighter?s appearance at ringside before a match reminds us of past glories.I didn?t at first think much of his chances of going the distance. My instincts gave voice to the same skepticism that George Stephanopoulos expressed in last Sunday?s interview on ABC?s This Week. It wasn?t until later, when I began to witness the reaction among others, among the online community, that it occurred to me that he might have a shot at winning. I admit with some embarrassment that it took this confirmation of collective opinion to spur me to earnest action.It is embarrassing for a couple of reasons. I?ve always been s...
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The Wave Grows
2007-06-26 06:03:00
On Sunday I had the privilege of meeting Ron's national campaign manager, Lew Moore. The event was a Seattle MeetUp, and it was standing room only. Lew began by saying that in politics, timing is everything. The time is right, he feels, for three reasons: (1) There isn't a coronated Republican candidate this time around. The party as a whole isn't loving up to any one person at this point. The other major candidates just have too many warts (my words). (2) The level of discontent in this country is at an all-time high. We have a President polling in the 20s, Congress in the teens. (3) The Internet has come into its own.He confirmed that everywhere they go around the country they leave their hosts shaking their heads in amazement, saying they've never seen any other candidate, EVER, who mobilized as much support as Ron has. At a recent event Ron had fully three times the number of supporters turning out as Barack Obama did at the same venue.Lew also said something funny but profo...
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Paul Way Out in Front...Again
2007-06-25 03:29:00
Ron Paul continues to dominate online opinion polls. Popular political blog Pajamas Media hosts a weekly straw poll, the latest results of which show a clear favorite among users of the Internet:
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If You?ve Ruled Out Ron Paul, You Ought to Think Twice
2007-06-24 13:00:00
There can be little question that Ron Paul is the most conservative candidate running in the Republican race. His long record in the House proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt. And yet, there seem to be many conservatives who have ruled him out for, as near as I can tell, two main reasons: the War on Terror and his perceived electability. The purpose of this article is to address these two concerns head-on.1. The War IssueFirst we must deal with an erroneous perception, which is that Ron Paul is ?soft? on terrorism. This belief is based upon a misinterpretation of his suggestion that it is important to understand what motivates terrorism and to bring that understanding to bear upon our foreign policy decisions. His conclusion is that needless meddling in the political affairs of the Middle East tends to breed resentment among the region?s inhabitants and influence their degree of militancy, ultimately putting us at greater risk of attack. It makes little difference if our involvem...
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Hello...the Internet IS Mainstream
2007-06-17 03:19:00
Why isn't Ron Paul making a better showing in those conventional "scientific" polls? Well it would help if he were included in them to begin with.An LA Times/Bloomberg Poll from June 11, which is currently being cited by many news sources, deliberately excluded Ron Paul from the questions that were posed to Republican and independent voters surveyed.The poll questions asked are available here. For example:If the Republican primary or caucus for president were being held in your state today and the candidates were Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, former House Majority Leader Newt Gingrich, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, California Congressman Duncan Hunter, Arizona Senator John McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, former governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson, and former Tennessee Senator and actor Fred Thompson, for whom would you vote?What makes this snubbing so egregious is that several...
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Rudy's Contract: A 12-Point Response
2007-06-16 03:38:00
Earlier this week Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani presented an article on TownHall.com he dubbed ?My Contract with America?, a not-too-subtle attempt to suck up any warm and fuzzy feeling that may have endured from the 1994 Republican Revolution in Congress.On examination, it seems that similarities between that movement and Mr. Giuliani?s pronouncement begin and end with the name. What he calls his ?12 Commitments? represent such a stark departure from traditional conservative values that its degree of popular approval may serve as an effective gauge of how far the party has drifted from its original moorings.Mr. Giuliani?s 12-point program deserves a conservative response. So here it is:1) I will keep America on offense in the Terrorists? War on Us ? We need to continue taking the fight to the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists by increasing the size, strength, and support of our military ? beginning with ten new Army combat brigades.We must assume he intends to spend them to de...
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Prepare for Blowback...
2007-06-14 08:02:00
The NY Times reports on the latest stupid gambit in the War on Terror:With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past....But critics of the strategy, including some American officers, say it could amount to the Americans? arming both sides in a future civil war. The United States has spent more than $15 billion in building up Iraq?s army and police force, whose manpower of 350,000 is heavily Shiite. With an American troop drawdown increasingly likely in the next year, and little sign of a political accommodation between Shiite and Sunni politicians in Baghdad, the critics say, there is a risk that any weapons given to Sunni groups will eventually be used against Shiites. There is also the possibility the we...
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Surge in Visits to Ron Paul's Campaign Site
2007-06-09 02:52:00
Traffic to Ron Paul's campaign web site has surged dramatically. This graph at Alexa.com shows the trend and compares it to the web site traffic of the other major Republican candidates.
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Request Ron Paul on More Substantive Shows
2007-06-07 03:22:00
Ron Paul ?s appearances on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show, etc., have been great, but in order for people across the country to become better acquainted with him and what he stands for, he needs to be featured on some shows that have a longer and more in-depth interview format. Imagine a meaty 30-minute or hour-long interview with Rep. Paul, giving him a chance to go beyond mere soundbites and fully elaborate his views and proposals. That would be a fascinating and satisfying conversation to watch.All who support Rep. Paul and those who are interested in hearing more from him need to help actively promote him to these kinds of shows. Producers will only consider booking him as a guest if they perceive that there is sufficient interest out there. I know there is, and we need to let them know it too.Below is a list of substantive shows, along with their e-mail addresses. Please take a few moments to send them your request for a Ron Paul interview. For the sake of convenience...
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Ron Paul and Fred Thompson: A Comparison
2007-06-06 05:45:00
Much has been made lately of the impending entry of Fred Thompson into the Republican race for the nomination. The journeyman actor has precious face-recognition, a commanding presence and camera-smart charisma all on his side. Admittedly, it?s hard not to be drawn in by him. His most recent gig has concretized him as the Law and Order candidate, which I think effectively sums up what a fair number of my fellows are looking for. But what of his credibility as a conservative?a true honest to goodness conservative? Is he the champion of limited government that he makes himself out to be?The former Senator says that federalism is his lodestar:Republicans have struggled in recent years, because they have strayed from basic principles. Federalism is one of those principles. It is something we all give lip service to and then proceed to ignore when it serves our purposes ? Those who are in charge of applying the conservative litmus test should wonder why some of their brethren continue to...
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Big Government and the Lure of War
2007-06-02 19:25:00
For my classical conservative fellows who are mystified over the lack of support for Ron Paul among the professional politicos of the Right, I recommend an excellent article from a few years back titled What is American Corporatism? by Robert Locke. It?s a must read.It isn?t that the Right has tried to shrink government and failed. This is the portrait repeatedly offered when phony conservatives wax wistful about the "Contract with America" as if it was a valiant struggle that just came up short against the prevailing Clintonian political climate. This is rubbish. The truth is that there are ample incentives for the New Right to promote big government, and promote it they have. Some of these incentives are outlined in the above-referenced article. Mr. Locke gives a thumbnail sketch of the ?third-way? that has guided federal economic policy since the New Deal (actually seeded decades before, as Gabriel Kolko documents in The Triumph of Conservatism). What it boils down to is the exho...
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A Man for All Seasons
2007-05-29 07:39:00
Conservative economist Bruce Bartlett, domestic policy advisor to former President Reagan, senior Treasury official under George H. W. Bush, and, more recently, author of Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy wrote an uplifting piece about Ron Paul for the New York Times earlier this year.In it, Mr. Bartlett describes how Rep. Paul had the acumen to recognize the economic fallout from central bank shenanigans when no other politician did (or if any had, they certainly hadn't the spine to speak of it):Ron saw the roots of the inflation problem in fiat money ? currency not backed by gold or other tangible assets. At the time, this was a controversial position. But there was no denying that inflation had accelerated in 1971, when the United States cut the dollar?s last link to gold. This meant that the Federal Reserve Board was no longer constrained by how much it could increase the money supply, which increased rapidly along with inflation.Alt...
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Don't Fear the Radical
2007-05-24 03:25:00
I suspect that there are many conservatives and moderate republicans who will find themselves attracted to Ron Paul and agreeing with him on many issues, yet at the same time inclined to shy away from voting for him on a comfort-level basis. His small government position or his free market views may resonate, but his proposals to completely eliminate the IRS, abolish the Federal Reserve and do away with whole departments may strike many as alarmingly extreme or unpalatably sweeping. The truth, I think, is that most people have instinctive misgivings about drastic all-at-once measures in politics. It?s human nature.There are two simple reasons why we needn?t fear the so-called ?radical?:(1) It doesn?t happen overnight. Big changes must come in incremental phases; you can begin immediately, but ultimately it?s a gradual process that takes place over time. It isn?t as if the President waves a wand on Monday and Tuesday morning the Department of Whatever has vanished without a trace. Ev...
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The Monsters Abroad
2007-05-22 07:49:00
In the South Carolina Republican Debate of May 15th, Ron Paul asked a tough question that has been quietly sidestepped, unsurprisingly, by all other candidates and the media. Paul had the audacity to ask what our reaction would be if some other country?China for example?was pursuing a similar policy of military expansion on our soil or in the Gulf of Mexico.I don?t expect Giuliani or the other candidates to take up this question anytime soon. Possibly because a rational response that passes intellectual muster eludes them. It's not, after all, just a hypothetical. That the U.S. exists in the first place is thanks to a radical insurgency that struck against a nation whose presence here had a good deal more legitimacy than ours in the Middle East ever will.Looking back at our history one might remember the battle of the Alamo from the perspective of a heroic suicide stand by insurgents against an encroaching Mexican nation. In 1846, President Polk sent a message to Congress declaring...
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