GOP Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul is currently the #5 search term on Technorati. I wondered what the hell that was about and did a bit of digging to find this ABC article on how some online polls showed a strong preference for Paul after Thursday’s debate. The article does note that online polls aren’t scientific and that these were probably freeped. Even so, they have given Paul more attention.
Here’s what Paul said at the debate on Thursday.
I think it’s fairly obvious that Paul’s opposition to the Iraq war is driving this phenomenon. While the isolationist foreign policy and limited federal government that slashes taxes and entitlement programs is a popular mix with some people — such as Don Luskin and Pat Buchanan, apparently –I doubt that there’s a mass movement behind that broader philosophy. Rather, Paul stood out on that stage of ten Republicans because he was the only one willing to take a strong stand on the war that aligns with the majority of the public today.
Can he win? In a word, no. The Republican Party is all about lining up behind the establishment candidate, and it will beat down any maverick by any means necessary. There’s even talk of Fox News efforts to keep him out of next week’s GOP debate in South Carolina. The Paul boomlet does at least serve as a reminder of the dissatisfaction with the current top-tier Republican candidates, and it may provide an ongoing embarrassment to the others as the war continues to come up at the candidates’ joint appearances.
UPDATE: Donald Luskin links here, wondering why he is mentioned in this blog post as being sympathetic to Ron Paul. The answer is evident if you watch the YouTube clip. The opening of the video is from CNBC.
Larry Kudlow: “Don Luskin, who’s your pro-stock market candidate?”
Don Luskin: “I mean this in all seriousness, Larry: Ron Paul.”
I don’t know if that’s the same Don Luskin as the guy who writes the “Poor and Stupid” blog, so that may be my error. I also may be wrong to equate calling Paul the “pro-stock market” candidate with supporting his overall policy views. Maybe that sound bite is taken out of context and Luskin isn’t such a Ron Paul fan. But anyway, that’s what the Luskin reference is doing there, sorry if it was a little off base.
UPDATE II: I had an email exchange with Mr. Luskin, who explained that his displeasure was in seeing himself lumped in with Pat Buchanan. The juxtaposition of the two names was merely based on the fact that the YouTube clip includes favorable comments about Ron Paul from both Don Luskin and Pat Buchanan, two men who apparently agree about little else. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, as they say.
Dimmy Karras 
I’m an Independent voter.
Actually, I’d never heard of him until the MSNBC debate last week, maybe folks are skewing the poll results, I’m not. Everyone I know is talking about him and what sense he makes.
Watching some of the other candidates, an embarrassment of pandering and bluster, then listening to Paul’s straight forwardness was a like a light bulb going off.
I don’t subscibe to all he proposes – but it’s a hell of a start.
Maybe I’m jaded, but Paul will surely be attacked, blackballed etc.
Business as usual.
Unless, people start reporting the story of what’s happening, like you.
Jim
I agree, Jim. I’ve donated $200 and registered as a republican to vote for him in the primary. He is a good man, and needs our support.
The poll was not ‘freeped’ whatever that means. He won fair and square with individual voters.
He is invited to the debate in South Carolina…and you can keep Fox on the straight and narrow and tell them to ask him GOOD questions ahead of time.
yourcomments@foxnews.com
Finally please check http://www.pledgebank.com/ronpaul1000 or ronpaul2008 for donations
If Fox kept him out of the debates it would just cause an uproar and he would get a massive amount of free attention and support. The Republican party cannot stop Ron Paul from getting nominated if that’s what the people want. The trouble he’ll have is getting his message out. I am afraid Fox will snub him badly in the next debate. Also, he is not an isolationist, he believes in trade and good relations with other countries, not perpetual war like the Republicans and Democrats. Can he win? Yes of course he can. Bring on the next debate!!
As a Don Luskin folower;
The biggest problem is you were making an analogy that Don Luskin equates to Pat Buchanan as an isolationist. Don is a huge ‘free trade’ man. Equating Luskin to an isolationist is a slap in the face. At the very least I’m sure it was frustrating for him to see that comparison.
Mr. Luskin devotes his entire articles, appearances, blog, etc. to championing free trade and educating others in how the economy functions. Mr. Luskin is a first class individual that will actually return emails and will gladly tell you his positions…
[…] Paul: No Longer Quite So Pathetic Ron Paul: No Longer Quite So Pathetic GOP Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul is currently the #5 search term on Technorati. […]
Ron Paul is a whackjob, strictly on the stage for comic relief. All of the other nine GOP candidates are serious men with serious intentions. Paul’s coalition of gold bugs, isolationists, and tax protesters is good for about a 1% vote in any Republican primary.
Libertarians always do better online than in the real world.
I believe candidates like Paul and Gravel (Dems) will be marginalized by the mainstream media who just parroted the official line during the prelude to the Iraq War. Watch for them to be “Dean Screamed” if they happen to gather too much momentum.
People complained that there were too many candidates on stage during the first Republican debate, but in reality, there really were only two candidates.
Candidate 1: “I answer every question by first mentioning Ronald Reagan, and then basically repeating what our glorious president Bush has told us over the last few years.”
Candidate 2: Ron Paul.
Can he win the Republican nomination? I reckon the odds are about 1:1000, but I’m still gonna campaign for him as much as I can.
It took only 5% of the population of the colonies to get behind the separation from England. The results, shocking and wonderful, we won our independence. But the greatest miracle was yet to happen, the states formed a more perfect union, a republic- if we can keep it.
I say, we few (5%) CAN make a difference and we CAN keep [it] with a champion of the constitution, Dr. Ron Paul, leading the way.
G0 Dr. Paul!
The media and the candidates are well aware of how well Dr. Paul did in the polls following the California debates… which is why Rudy took the opportunity tonight in South Carolina to distort what Dr. Paul said regarding 9/11. Fox News pundits also rejected the results of their own poll tonight which had Dr. Paul in 1st and 2nd place.
I think the 50 states should dissolve the federal government and should try to reunify under a new constitution. Not that there is anything wrong with the text of the original document, but it might remind people as to what the constitution of 1789 was all about– i.e., federalism. I’d like to see that over our present illegitimate form of government where the fed has plenary power.
FOX’s smear campaign against Paul backfired. People heard Ron Paul for the first time, and went online and checked him out. To people’s surprise they found out what a great man he is. I will do everything I can to get this man elected.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd251.htm
Read that if you truly care to support this man.
Knowledge is power.
Ron Paul is the man! That’s all I have to say. Your post points out an excellent truth: this man can bring people of disparate views together like no one else.
He would not be a politician to keep people “poor and stupid” as Don Luskin might say– he was wonderful for supporting him after the first debate.
I will do everything I can to get this man elected. That would be a great day for our country.
He did not say what Giuliani tried to say he did.
Those who have a sense of the perilous economic situation we have drifted into should also reflect on how we got into it. By choosing ‘easy money’ over ‘sound money’ when the United States handed monetary policy over to the Fed (private banks) in 1916, the United States mortgaged its future.
‘Money as Debt’ and the end of Bretton Woods has given us ‘easy credit’ but is also one of the reasons we’ve had to associate the dollar with oil sales (pressuring OPEC), which lead directly to our dangerous war of dominance over the Middle East.
It is frightening to hear in the Ron Paul interview on the Korelian Economic Report (see YouTube) that many members of Congress still believe the dollar to be backed by gold reserves. Electing yet a short sighted, profiteering candidate of their caliber to the Oval Office is extremely risky today.
Ron Paul has been investigating monetary policy for many years and is not a ‘gold nut’, but someone who understands the relationships between government spending, monetary policy, and foreign policy.
Most importantly he understands how the erosion of our manufacturing base, and the shift to a permanent wartime economy is long-term economic suicide. Investments into war machinery and personell are an economic black hole, since the goods and services do not flow back into society as useful products. The only economic utility to be gained is by actually implementing these tools in mercantilistic, opressive foreign policy.
Leaving the moral and ethical compunctions of such a policy aside, the record shows that long-term economic benefits will not accrue from it. Plundering of finite resources and forcible imposition of expoitative regimes is a recipe for hatred and blowback. Worse still is that the Big Government inefficiencies and bad decisions associated with that military empire are a harm to our long-term interests.
What was the net economic gain for America in taking-over Afghanistan and restoring the flow of heroin to the world? What was the net economic gain for America to keep iraqi oil offline since 1991, only to be pumped out at some later time at 100+ dollars profit per barrel? That only ensures vast profits for the few companies that will be granted the concessions, but does nothing for the economic viability of our country as a whole.
It’s time for the educated elite of America to start reflecting seriously on what Dr. Paul is saying and realize that our current policies are nearsighted and ultimately destructive to not only peace and prosperity but also the most fundamental freedoms that make our society vibrant and strong.
The alternative vision, of the all-seeing, controlling state in a cronyish relationship with large corporations has been tried before. Its towering height belies its inner corruption, and this, combined with structural rigidity, predicates eventual collapse.
We who are capable of seeing these things must act responsibly. The bills may not come due in our lifetimes, but our children and our children’s children should be not be condemned to live in the house we are currently building.
Considered, considerate feedback is always welcome,
CowBot
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