Ron Paul Strong in Final Four Debate

With less than one week to go until Super Tuesday, Ron Paul succeeded once again in distinguishing himself from the competition, repeating his familiar campaign themes of a wise foreign policy, sound monetary policy, limited Constitutional government, and freedom. CNN tried in vain to make it a Romney vs. McCain debate, but Huckabee's repeated objections to their obvious bias and Ron Paul's powerful answers to his handful of questions saved what was otherwise the worst-run debate of the campaign.

A summary of Ron Paul's responses:

1. Are we worse off than 8 years ago? Of course we are, and Ron Paul noted that there is plenty of blame to go around, to the President, the Congress, and our flawed monetary system. He questioned the supposed need to spend a trillion dollars per year propping up an empire we can no longer afford, and reminded Americans that it is always the middle class that gets wiped out when a currency collapses.

2. Should California be allowed to set its own emissions standards? As usual, Ron Paul deferred to Constitutional federalism, saying the decision was rightly California's, but he also stressed the importance of defending property rights, something that was forgotten during the Industrial Revolution as big business colluded with big government to set pollution regulations favorable to corporations.

3. Are government infrastructure projects better than tax rebates? When Mike Huckabee expressed a preference for big public works projects for stimulating the economy over tax rebates that are going to be supplied with money borrowed from China, Ron Paul asked the obvious question -- Where is the money for the infrastructure going to come from? He questioned why we pay to bomb bridges in Iraq, then pay to rebuild them, when we can't afford to fix our own bridges here at home.

4. Should Reagan have appointed Sandra Day O'Connor? Ron Paul explained that he wouldn't have, because he would prefer a more strict Constitutionalist. Anderson Cooper inexplicably cut him off at that point, despite beginning the debate with a statement that there wouldn't be any time limits.

5. Should we leave the troops in Iraq for 100 years, like McCain suggested? This was a softball from a friendly supporter on Politico.com, and Dr. Paul knocked it out of the park. He reminded the audience that our inflationary recession of the 1970's was caused by the government borrowing to fund both guns and butter -- war and welfare -- and that we are headed in the same direction today. His response earned the biggest applause of the night, for any candidate.

6. What qualifies you to manage the economy and the military? Rather than describing the American people as pawns on a chessboard, like Romney and Huckabee did, Ron Paul emphasized that under the Constitution, the President isn't supposed to manage the economy -- the American people should do that, and the government should get out of the way. As for being Commander in Chief, he suggested that directing a wise foreign policy and avoiding unnecessary wars was far more important than directing troop movements. This was his best answer of the night, setting himself apart as the only remaining presidential candidate who truly believes in freedom and the Constitution.

7. Would Ronald Reagan endorse you? Ron Paul pointed with pride to the fact that Ronald Reagan did endorse him, in his 1978 Congressional race, and that he was one of only four Congressmen who actually endorsed Reagan in 1976, when Reagan was considered a fringe candidate with kooky ideas like reducing the size of government. Then he played his trump card, educating the Reagan worshipers at the table to the fact that Ronald Reagan supported sound monetary policy, and knew that no great country had ever remained great after going off the gold standard.

Here's the full transcript.