Filed under: President 2008, Republicans, Ron Paul

Without a doubt, Ron Paul is the surprise story of the primary elections. Who would have thought the former Libertarian candidate for president would wrest away the "Straight-Talk" moniker from John McCain? While I don't always agree with his positions, he makes a whole lot of sense when it comes to Iraq and the internet. And in regards to his David and Goliath debate tussle with Rudy Giuliani, though the initial consensus among conservative pundits was that Paul fared poorly, the Texas Congressman continues to articulate his position and attract supporters. But have a look-see for yourself.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: President 2008, Rudy Giuliani, Ron Paul

Kudos to Ron Paul for infusing the presidential race with a very unexpected twist. From this week's dust-up at the Republican debate, Paul and Rudy Giuliani locked horns on the notion of "Blowback," a term coined by the CIA back in the 1950's which postulates negative repercussions as a result of United States foreign policy. First, have a look at the issue from the perspective of Mr. Paul's camp:

There's a lot here that I agree with. For a while now, Giuliani has been guilty of politicizing 9/11. As much as I admired the mayor's humanity and steadfastness in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack, I have recoiled from his absurd insistence that America won't be as safe if we elect a Democratic president. This from the man who nominated mob-linked Bernard Kerik as the head of Homeland Security?
But the debate on how much credence we should pay to the idea of blowback is an interesting one. While our elected officials often proudly declare that we will never cede to the demands of terrorists, it is a fact, as Mr. Paul has pointed out, that the 1983 attack on the Marine compound in Beirut was enough for Ronald Reagan to exit that troubled nation. Ditto that for Bill Clinton in Somalia. The message seemed to be, You don't want us there, we're gone. Indeed, no one would argue that we should ignore local customs and use our diplomatic clout to open a chain of bikini shops in downtown Riyadh. Never mind that our culture says that women have a right to wear a bikini in public, or that our system of free-market economics dictates that "Bikinis-R-Us" at least be given a chance to prosper. Opening such a store would offend religious sensibilities. So what about basing soldiers in Saudi Arabia?

The slopes are slippery in every direction on this issue. Certainly, the 9/11 commission is right that there are reasons for the poor opinion of Americans throughout the Middle East. The biggest is a perceived indifference to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Could the Bush administration have done more to try and broker peace between the parties? Absolutely.

On the other hand, the intolerance fostered by the likes of al-Qaeda (Danish cartoons, anyone?) is completely unacceptable. Their vision of how the world should be governed in no way comports with our own, whether you're a Republican or Democrat. So the notion of entering into serious dialog with these people, as both Pakistan and Afghanistan are currently doing, is a tad hard to swallow.

I guess I'm somewhere in between Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani on this question. I'm not thumping my chest and demanding Ron Paul retract any suggestion that blowback is real, then again, I'm not an isolationist, either.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Republicans, '08: House Races, Ron Paul

And so it is in the year 2007 when you say something and become famous or infamous within minutes. Ron Paul's former assistant was perturbed at what the congressman had to say about the War on Terror and Muslim "root causes." Today, he decided to do something about it (note: the link to Redstate is a bit slow due to heavy traffic):

I am calling on Ron Paul to resign his seat, sooner rather than later. Otherwise Congressional District 14 voters from Victoria to Galveston will appear to be endorsing his treachorous, and near treasonous views on foreign policy.

...I am this morning, declaring my candidacy for Congress in the GOP primaries against Ron Paul. If he does not resign his seat, and if another Republican candidate does not declare against him, I will run a balls-to-the-wall campaign for Congress in Texas CD 14.

I am the guy that got Ron Paul elected to Congress in 1996. I can and will defeat him in 2008.

Eric Dondero, Fmr. Senior Aide
US Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)
1997-2003

As I alluded to at the beginning of this post, the statements by Ron Paul and the rebuttal by Rudy Giuliani are the only two things to be remembered from this debate a year and a half out from the election. Paul may well have destroyed his career and Rudy bolstered his chances of gaining the nomination.

Paul is a ten-year Congressman no one, short of political junkies, had heard of until the last few weeks. Come November 2008, I suspect he will return to oblivion as Texans won't take too kindly to a sitting representative saying that America brought the attacks on ourselves. He's now an outcast and will remain so when it comes time for cash to be raised.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: President 2008, Debates, Ron Paul, Viral Video

Seemingly from out of nowhere, Texas Republican Ron Paul has made a huge splash in both Republican debates. The former Libertarian Party candidate for president is a hit on YouTube. He has consistently provided some of the most entertaining sound-bites of the race thus far. Last night's performance was no exception. Here's a montage.

There's a little something in there to piss everybody off. Abolish the Department of Energy, the Department of Education (he wasn't alone in this suggestion), and the Department of Homeland Security? That's some pretty strong stuff. Right wing pundits have had enough of the side-show, however, and are massing to denounce Paul as way out of step with the party. But just why has the candidate with the coolest name (even better than Rudy McRomney) gained so much political traction? Simple, he was never for the Iraq war, and wants to put an end to it immediately. Now there's a popular message.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: President 2008, Republicans, Debates, Rudy Giuliani, Ron Paul

People will remember only two things from last evenings GOP debate in South Carolina: Governor Huckabee's reference to Congress spending more money than John Edwards in a beauty shop. And a well deserved, and played, slap down of Ron Paul delivered by Rudy Giuliani.

In fact, here it is on YouTube already.

As for the rest of the debate, and the participants thereof, I agree completely with fellow 'Stump' blogger David Knowles that the format and the moderators were much better. No punches were pulled with the questions.

John McCain: Did better than last time, and seemed a little calmer. No "gates of hell" type references this time. But he did claim to have never supported amnesty, which has a lot of us scratching our heads, remembering an immigration bill with his name on it last year. And the other sponsor was Kennedy. A point other debaters didn't fail to bring up.

Mitt Romney: His slickness didn't come off as well this time. Probably because Rudy and John did better. Didn't hurt himself, but didn't help either. He's stuck near 10% and he needs to break out. I saw nothing here that will help him do that.

Rudy: Much, much better, approaching the type of confidence in these forums that he usually has but did not display in the last debate. Got the best line of the evening in the aforementioned smackdown. Still, when the dust settles, his answers on abortion amounted to I support it, but want to reduce it. Which amounts to the "safe, legal, and rare" rhetoric of all Democrats. Not good, Rudy still has a huge abortion problem that he did not have in March.

The rest: While most did not distinguish themselves very well. Ron Paul is extremely whiny and hard to listen to. Comes off as a hard core libertarian, which I like, but will give hard core libertarianism a bad name, which I don't like. Mike Huckabee got the Edwards line off well with a great response, good for a second tier candidate and everyone will connect that with him, which is PR gold.

But the poll on Instapundit indicates that most of us are waiting for Fred.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments