凍結 天然氣 火車

Mandate my *ss!!!!!

The People have spoken and they want me to be their royal ruler

Realizing that children are not allowed to vote and in most places you have to be 18 or 21 to legally vote that means the total number of people who could vote are slightly less then 50 percent of the population.

Of course only about half the people who are over 18 and could vote actually register to vote.

So if every registered voter actually voted and they all voted for the same guy, the mandate to have him as our royal master and ruler would only be from about 25 percent of the population.

Of course in most generic elections a measly 5 percent of the registered voters actually show up and vote.

So if you assume all of these people that actually voted, voted for the same person, then the mandate to have him as our royal ruler would only be from 1.25 percent of the population.

Of course elections rarely have all the same people vote for same guy. Usually the votes are split 50/50 or 60/40.

So in many cases where the guy wins by a small percentage he is getting something like a little over one half of one percent of the total population mandating that he rule over the other 99.5 percent of the population.

Last but not least many elections are driven by special interest groups.

In an election the special interest groups do everything they can to get people who will vote in their interest to show up and vote in the election.

So more often then not when a politician says the people have spoken and demanded that he be our royal master, it really means that the specials interest groups he represents have spoken they they want him to help rob the rest of us and give the stolen loot to the folks in the special interest group that showed up and voted.

Mandates my *ss. Elections are simply a way for a majority to force their will on the rest of the population. Libertarians like to call this "tyranny of the majority", of course with the tiny percentages of people that actually vote it ends up being a "tyranny of the minority"

Is Ron Paul left of Obama, or a throwback to Ike?

Is Ron Paul left of Obama, or a throwback to Ike?

Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Friday, January 6, 2012

Washington -- GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul's antiwar stand is considered so out of sync with his party that rival Rick Santorum put him in league with liberal Democrat Dennis Kucinich, to the left of President Obama.

But to his supporters, Paul is returning the GOP to its cautious foreign policy roots, articulated in President Dwight Eisenhower's 1961 warning about "the military-industrial complex."

In their view, the Republican Party lost its way starting with the Reagan military build-up in the 1980s and reaching a crescendo with former President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"George Bush was the worst thing that ever happened to the Republican Party," said Paul supporter Robert Nadeau, owner of Nadeau Family Vintners in Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County). "When I look at the Republican Party going back to World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Republican candidates were the end-the-war candidates.

"The party of Eisenhower and Nixon has now become the war party," he said. "How did that happen? How is it we're willing to borrow $1 trillion from the Chinese so we can throw bombs on people whose regimes we propped up?"

Trillion-dollar deficits at home and a war in Iraq that is estimated to have cost at least that much are creating dissonance among Tea Party, evangelical Christian and traditional Republicans in conservative regions of California and the nation.

Compelling message

For some voters who once supported Sen. John McCain and George W. Bush, the small-government, antiwar message from Paul, a 76-year-old candidate who critics say looks like he could be feeding pigeons, is compelling.

Establishment Republicans give Paul zero chance of winning the GOP nomination, but the party's neoconservative wing is alarmed enough about his message that former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson accused Paul's supporters of trying to "erase 158 years of Republican Party history," including Abraham Lincoln.

"He really is not resonating with establishment Republicans," who consider Paul's opposition to sanctions on Iran as "extremely dangerous," said GOP analyst Ford O'Connell.

Still, polls show Paul headed for a second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, behind Mitt Romney, boosted by the state's open primary that allows independents to vote. Paul doubled his showing in Iowa from four years ago, capturing 21 percent of the vote there on Tuesday.

Exit polling from the Iowa caucuses showed Paul picking up 18 percent of participants described as evangelical Christians, outpacing Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who each got 14 percent of those voters. Santorum, who finished in second place, just eight votes behind Romney, got 32 percent of those voters.

Paul also matched Romney among Tea Party supporters, at 19 percent, while Santorum won the Tea Party bloc at 29 percent. In New Hampshire, however, Santorum is lagging behind Paul, drawing 8 percent support to Paul's 18 percent, according to a poll released Thursday by Suffolk University in Boston. Romney is drawing 41 percent.

Analysts say Paul's appeal is limited to a loyal bloc of diehards.

Popularity ceiling

"He hits a ceiling at 25 percent," said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, which runs the poll. "The only state where he can break above 25 percent is Virginia, and that's only because he's one of two candidates on the ballot" along with Romney.

John Dennis, a San Francisco activist for Paul who ran as the Republican challenger to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, two years ago when she was House speaker, said Paul's loyal supporters have doubled in the past six months.

"The Republican Party was non-interventionist, but the neoconservatives took that over," Dennis said. "But our roots are still there because it makes common sense to conservatives not to go to war simply from a fiscal point of view."

The Paul campaign's strategy is to collect delegates with an eye toward influencing the party platform. Caucuses in Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota and Washington can allow passionate followers an outsized influence because open balloting is conducted among small local groups, compared with statewide primaries with secret ballots.

Political analysts are skeptical, however, that Romney or any of the other GOP contenders would embrace Paul's libertarian positions, which include not just his antiwar stance but his opposition to the war on drugs, the Federal Reserve and other issues.

At the same time, the eventual candidate can ill afford to alienate Paul's followers if he continues to rack up vote shares in the 20 percent range.

Getting a little help

Boosting Paul's visibility is a war-weary public, record deficit spending and a sitting Democratic president who many Democrats believe has continued Bush policies on terrorism, civil liberties and war, said David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute.

Paul has "brought together this concept of economic conservatism, social moderation and staying out of unnecessary wars," Boaz said. "That combination hasn't been offered by any other Republican presidential candidate in a long time."

But Michael Denny, a San Francisco volunteer for the Paul campaign who described his political views as "Old Right revivalist," said the sentiment he has encountered among many GOP voters is that "war is religion," and that faction shows little sign of change.

"I can't say I'm seeing a shift among those who have taken a hard-line position," Denny said. "But for those who are undecided or feel queasy about the way the government is going, Ron Paul gives them an alternative voice."

E-mail Carolyn Lochhead at clochhead@sfchronicle.com.

Soldier at Ron Paul rally could face legal trouble

Soldier at Ron Paul rally could face legal trouble

By MIKE GLOVER | AP – Fri, Jan 6, 2012

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Army reservist who took the stage at a political event for Ron Paul and expressed his support for the Republican presidential candidate could face legal troubles, the military said Thursday.

Cpl. Jesse Thorsen, 28, stood at a podium at the Paul rally in Iowa on Tuesday night wearing his military fatigues and said meeting the Texas congressman was like "meeting a rock star."

"His foreign policy is by far, hands down better than any other candidate's out there," Thorsen told the cheering crowd.

Army Reserve spokeswoman Maj. Angel Wallace said participating in a partisan political event in uniform is a violation of Defense Department rules and the military is reviewing whether Thorsen could face legal ramifications. Soldiers are permitted to vote, participate in some political activities and express opinions about candidates as long as they are not in uniform and speaking in an official capacity, she said.

She said Thorsen was not on active duty at the time of Tuesday's rally, but it was not immediately clear if that would have any bearing on the case.

Thorsen "stands alone in his opinions regarding his political affiliation and beliefs, and his statements and beliefs in no way reflect that of the Army Reserve," Wallace said in a statement.

A telephone number for Thorsen could not immediately be found.

At Tuesday's rally at Paul's headquarters Ankeny, Iowa, Paul called Thorsen to join him on stage. Thorsen then shakes his hand before he steps to the podium.

Drew Ivers, a spokesman for Paul's Iowa campaign, said the Thorsen's appearance at the rally was spontaneous and not planned by the campaign.

In a separate interview with CNN on Tuesday, Thorsen said he had served in the military for the past decade.

"I'm really excited about a lot of his ideas, especially when it comes to bringing the soldiers home," he told CNN. "I've been serving for 10 years now and all 10 years of those have been during wartime. I would like to see a little peace time Army."

Paul, who finished third in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, has said if he is elected, he would bring all or nearly all troops home from Afghanistan and other foreign posts.

While he billed himself as serving for 10 years, it was unclear if that service was continuous, and it appears to be punctuated by at least one criminal case.

According to the military, Thorsen had deployed once to Afghanistan in 2009 after first joining the Florida National Guard in July 2001 and the Army Reserve in 2009. The military said he is with an engineer company out of Des Moines, and his unit falls under the 416th Theater Engineer Command out of Darien, Ill.

Court records show that Thorsen was arrested in Lee County, Fla., in December 2004 for three felonies: burglary, theft of a firearm and possession of burglary tools. Details were not available late Thursday.

He pleaded guilty to all three charges the following July but adjudication was withheld, meaning he would have no record. He was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay $660.50 He made regular payments through April 2006 totaling $630.50 but then stopped, the records show. In May 2006, he was ruled in violation of his probation and was arrested three weeks later in Tampa, spending three days in jail. In August 2006, he appeared before a judge in Lee County, who reinstated his probation. His probation ended in March 2007.

Wallace said the military was looking into the arrests. They were first reported by www.militarycorruption.com.

____

Associated Press writers Mitch Stacy in Tampa, Fla.; and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

"We are dangerous — to the status quo”

Source

Paul says 2nd place in NH shows strong support

Jan. 10, 2012 08:55 PM

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Ron Paul scored a solid second place finish in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, positioning him as the leading anti-establishment alternative to Mitt Romney and ensuring a platform for the Texas congressman’s libertarian message for weeks to come.

Paul won about 24 percent of the state’s primary vote. It was an improvement from his showing in Iowa, where he placed third behind Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Inside a Manchester banquet hall, Paul told a cheering crowd the results repudiated critics who’ve warned that his views — particularly his anti-interventionist approach to foreign policy — were dangerous.

“They are telling the truth. Because we are dangerous — to the status quo,” Paul said to loud cheers.

His New Hampshire showing represented a dramatic shift in fortune for Paul, a largely ignored also-ran in the 2008 Republican contest who placed a distant fifth in New Hampshire that year. This time, Paul’s pledge to adhere to the Constitution, audit the Federal Reserve and reduce the size of the federal government found an audience among voters angry over government spending and bailouts and disillusioned with both parties in Washington.

While far behind Romney in New Hampshire, Paul was comfortably outpacing his other GOP rivals in the state.

The 76-year-old Texan ran strongest among young voters, according to exit polls conducted for the AP and the television networks. Paul carried nearly half of voters under age 30. About 4 in 10 new voters backed Paul, though first-timers made up just 1 in 8 voters in the state.

Paul ran even with Romney among voters with household incomes below $50,000, and among those who cited the deficit as their top issue.

Paul garnered about 4 in 10 votes among those who said it was most important that their candidate be a true conservative or have strong moral character. He ran even with Romney among those who said a candidate’s issue positions were more important than their leadership skills or personal qualities.

Still, a majority of New Hampshire voters said they ultimately would be dissatisfied if Paul became the nominee.

Paul told supporters he had called Romney to congratulate him on his strong showing.

“He certainly had a clear-cut victory But we are nibbling at his heels,” Paul said, declaring a win for “the cause of liberty.”

Paul planned to fly to South Carolina on Wednesday for a noon rally in Columbia. The state holds its primary Jan. 21.

———

AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.

Ron Paul addresses the racist criminal injustice system

Column: Ron Paul is lone GOP voice on unequal justice

By DeWayne Wickham

Ron Paul must have known the question was coming. For weeks, he had been dogged by charges that newsletters published in his name in the 1980s and 1990s contained racist content.

So he probably wasn't surprised when ABC News' George Stephanopoulos asked him during a televised debate three days before the New Hampshire primary how that could have happened without his knowledge. But no one on the stage with the Texas congressman — not the other contenders for the Republican Party's presidential nomination who bristle with contempt for their libertarian colleague or the panel of journalists wielding the questions — was ready for Paul's answer.

Dwelling on something he didn't write but has assumed responsibility for and apologized, Paul said, diverts attention away from the "true racism" in this nation's judicial system that disproportionately imprisons blacks for their involvement in drug crimes.

Other candidates mum

And when Paul finished what the Associated Press later called "a positively leftist rant," there were no follow-up questions, no clamoring from the other candidates to have their say on the issue. There was just a moment of uneasy silence — and then a commercial break. When the debate resumed, there was no return to Paul's charge of unequal justice, an indifference that is a haunting metaphor for the nation's failure to address an issue that is even worse than Paul suggests.

In 2010, 69% of all people arrested in this country for committing crimes were white. Blacks were just 28%, according to the FBI. These percentages have remained steady every year of the past decade. During this same period, roughly twice as many whites as blacks were arrested each year for drug crimes, according to the FBI annual Crime in the United States report.

Despite this, nearly half of all persons incarcerated throughout the first decade of this century were black. More than a liberal rant, that's the ugly reality of a criminal justice system that, as Paul correctly noted, prosecutes and imprisons blacks in disproportionate numbers.

No GOP appeal to blacks

That none of the other Republicans — who are champing at the bit for the right to challenge President Obama's re-election — would align themselves with Paul on this issue doesn't surprise me. The GOP's strategy for winning back the White House is devoid of any serious appeal to black voters and lacks any real concern about the lingering vestiges of racism inflicted upon blacks, who are overwhelmingly Democrats.

Forget all their pious talk about being Americans first. Paul's unanswered "rant" exposed them all —Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry— as crass partisans who won't risk upending the conventional wisdom about crime and punishment in this country when their political butts are on the line. They don't want to derail their campaigns by giving any credence to an issue that many right-wing voters they are courting would likely discount.

"If we truly want to be concerned about racism, you ought to look at a few of those issues and look at the drug laws, which are being so unfairly enforced," Paul said as the network cut to commercials, and all the presidential wannabes on stage with him undoubtedly heaved a big sigh of relief.

DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesday for USA TODAY.

Ron Paul Finishes Second in New Hampshire

Ron Paul Finishes Second in New Hampshire

By TRIP GABRIEL

Published: January 10, 2012

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Representative Ron Paul of Texas finished a strong second in the state’s Republican primary on Tuesday, which in many ways was the more telling outcome in a race where Mitt Romney’s dominance was never in doubt.

Mr. Paul polled well ahead of the late-surging Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who ran third, and Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who battled for fourth. Mr. Paul benefited from the large turnout of independent voters, getting the nod from about a third, a little more than Mr. Romney. He also did well with young voters and those who said they were liberal on social issues.

But even if political analysts continue to regard the libertarian-leaning Mr. Paul as a protest candidate, with no shot at the nomination, his success here — on top of a third-place finish last week in the Iowa caucuses — means he will probably continue his campaign for months and perhaps to the summer convention.

“There is no way they are going to stop the momentum that we have started,” Mr. Paul told a raucous crowd shortly after Mr. Romney gave his own speech.

He bragged about getting the political system to talk about “real cuts” in spending, monetary policy and the Federal Reserve.

Despite Mr. Paul’s strong showing, it is clear that he will have a hard time repeating that success, at least in the next two primaries.

In South Carolina, which votes on Jan. 21, Mr. Paul has a reasonably strong organization but one that is not considered as powerful as in Iowa and New Hampshire. He also faces heightened opposition, some party strategists say, because of his noninterventionist and antiwar positions. South Carolina has a legacy of large military installations and heavy defense industry and military employment.

After South Carolina comes the Florida primary on Jan. 31, the first big-state contest. But Mr. Paul is largely expected to bypass that race because of the huge expense of television advertising and other campaign costs, as well as the structure of the primary, which is seen as putting him at a disadvantage.

Instead, he will focus on the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 4 and on caucuses in other states where he has worked to build organizations and where the rules make it easier for independents to vote for him.

The other story in New Hampshire was Mr. Huntsman, who did much better here than the single digits he showed in national polls, benefiting from his sole focus on the state.

But with the Republican nominating contest moving to South Carolina, Mr. Huntsman faces a steep challenge, with little organization in the state and no personal connection to the voters. His moderate views also mean that he has an uphill battle in a Southern state with many conservative Christian voters and Tea Party members.

Over all, Mr. Huntsman performed best here among voters who either support the Obama administration or share some of its views, according to exit surveys.

South Carolina’s demographics, on the other hand, will favor the two candidates battling for fourth here, Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum.

Each of those candidates will try to prevent South Carolinians from accepting the inevitability of a coronation of the New Hampshire winner, which they performed in 2008 when Senator John McCain’s momentum from winning New Hampshire catapulted him ahead of a more conservative candidate, Mike Huckabee, and led to his nomination.

Mr. Gingrich, who believes his one-time lead in national polls was undone by attack ads from Romney supporters, heads to South Carolina with a “super PAC” pledging $3.4 million for attack ads. They will focus on Mr. Romney’s career as a corporate buyout specialist, a case Mr. Gingrich is making with voters and in interviews.

“As we get to South Carolina, as the choice becomes clear,” Mr. Gingrich said, “I believe we can reach out and we can create a majority that will shock the country and a majority that will continue to put us on the right track.”

“It is doable. It is a daunting challenge. But consider the alternative,” he said Tuesday night.

Mr. Gingrich also signaled that he would defend his right flank in South Carolina from the conservative alternative of Mr. Santorum, whom he has called a “junior partner” of his in Congress in the 1990s and who has had less success campaigning.

“I actually know how to build a nationwide campaign, and he lost Pennsylvania by the largest margin of any senator in the history of the state,” Mr. Gingrich said.

After a disappointing showing in New Hampshire, Mr. Santorum is banking on South Carolina to regain the momentum he had when he nearly won the Iowa caucuses.

“We are going to go on to South Carolina,” he told supporters in New Hampshire, where he would be the “true conservative” in the race. His campaign has raised $3 million since Iowa and is already pumping $1.5 million of it into TV ads in South Carolina.

Mr. Santorum said he competed in New Hampshire because “we wanted to respect the process” and campaign in every state.

“We didn’t spend a lot of money, but we put our message out there,” he said. “We came where the campaign was and delivered a message not just for New Hampshire but for America.”

He stayed on his conservative message in the Northeast state, which John Braebender, a top adviser to Mr. Santorum, said would make him appealing to South Carolina voters. He may also benefit if there is a backlash to Mr. Gingrich’s turn toward negative campaigning, after he vowed earlier not to criticize fellow Republicans and to focus on “positive solutions.”

The Santorum campaign also has a bigger presence in South Carolina than it had in New Hampshire, and it is starting to organize county chairmen in Florida.

Reporting was contributed by Richard A. Oppel Jr. in Leesville, S.C., and Katharine Q. Seelye, Marjorie Connelly and Michael D. Shear in Manchester.

Ron Paul support growing beyond an 'irate minority'

Ron Paul says support growing beyond an 'irate minority'

By John Hoeffel

January 11, 2012, 12:02 p.m.

Reporting from West Columbia, S.C.—

Ron Paul, fresh from his second-place finish in New Hampshire, treated an adoring and cheering South Carolina crowd to a lesson on how to bring the nation back to what he said are the core constitutional principles of a dramatically scaled-down federal government.

“We had a victory for the cause of liberty last night,” he said.

The Texas congressman told the crowd of about 350 people in an aviation hangar near the Columbia Metropolitan Airport that his support was expanding beyond “a tireless irate minority.” “We’re marching on. The numbers are growing. They grew exponentially in New Hampshire, and they’re going to grow contagiously here in South Carolina,” he said.

Paul promised to be “very, very busy” before the Jan. 21 primary, but headed home while other candidates continued to ricochet around in search of television airtime. His national campaign chairman said he probably will not return until Sunday.

When Dr. Mike Vasovski, the campaign’s state chairman, introduced Paul, he noted that the last time Paul was in the state, at a GOP debate in Spartanburg, he got just 89 seconds. “Today, he’s going to get all the time he wants,” he said as a crowd of about 350 erupted in cheers.

Paul, wearing a suit and red, white, blue and silver striped tie, entered holding hands with his wife and trailed by a few family members. Many strained on their tip-toes to snap cellphone photos of the candidate and one hoisted a poster that said: “Ron Paul is Electable.”

“We did have an exciting evening last night,” he said. “Anybody watch TV at all?”

On a stage before a Ron Paul banner and between a U.S. flag and South Carolina’s palmetto tree and crescent moon flag, Paul said his campaign was all about protecting liberty and ending a century-long “slipping and sliding away from the Constitution.”

“We need something different, but we don’t need anything brand new,” he said.

He highlighted his political philosophy, saying that he would end the nation’s cradle-to-grave dependency on the federal government and return the savings to the people. “Most of the Constitution is restraining the federal government,” he said.

Paul also outlined his view of limited foreign engagement, saying, “This country should never go to war unless a war is declared, win it and come home.”

He said he would audit the Federal Reserve, triggering cheers of “End the Fed.” “We’re going to break up their monopoly and all their bailouts of their friends on Wall Street,” he said.

If banks are pushed toward bankruptcy by risky investments, such as foreign debt, then, Paul said, “Well, that’s what they should do. They should all go bankrupt.”

Chris Barczak, a 41-year-old real estate appraiser from Columbia, described his views as libertarian, but said he had never voted for a Republican for president. He has been volunteering and working phone banks for Paul, who caught his eye four years ago. He said he opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and wants to end foreign aid.

“Let these countries deal with their own issues,” he said. “It gets us in trouble by sticking our noses in other countries.”

Barczak, who did not serve in the military, but whose father is a Vietnam veteran, held a poster that said: “U.S. Troops Support Ron Paul.” “I think it’s important that we send a message that the military’s behind him,” he said, then added, “I just grabbed one, actually.”

Paul said during his speech that he has the most support among the candidates from active military personnel. At Ft. Jackson, near Columbia, there are more than 3,500 soldiers and about 12,000 family members. The state also has a large number of military retirees.

Michelle Woods, a 41-year-old mother who brought her five children, said she supported Paul because he wants to return American to the principles on which it was founded. She was wearing a shirt with stars and flags and a Statue of Liberty and words such as “America” and “Liberty.”

“He’s not afraid to say what is right,” she said, cradling 9-month-old Michael in her arms. “I think that the way our Founding Fathers created the Constitution is not where we are now and we need to get back to that.”

Ron Paul’s achievement

Ron Paul’s achievement

By Charles Krauthammer, Published: January 12

There are two stories coming out of New Hampshire. The big story is Mitt Romney. The bigger one is Ron Paul.

Romney won a major victory with nearly 40 percent of the vote, 16 points ahead of No. 2. The split among his challengers made the outcome even more decisive. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were diminished by distant, ­lower-tier finishes. Rick Perry got less than 1 percent. And Jon Huntsman, who staked everything on New Hampshire, came in a weak third with less than half of Romney’s vote. He practically moved to the state — and then received exactly one-sixth of the vote in a six-man contest. Where does he go from here?

But the bigger winner was Ron Paul. He got 21 percent in Iowa, 23 in New Hampshire, the only candidate other than Romney to do well with two very different electorates, one more evangelical and socially conservative, the other more moderate and fiscally conservative.

Paul commands a strong, energetic, highly committed following. And he is unlike any of the other candidates. They’re out to win. He admits he doesn’t see himself in the Oval Office. They’re one-time self-contained enterprises aiming for the White House. Paul is out there to build a movement that will long outlive this campaign.

Paul is less a candidate than a “cause,” to cite his election-night New Hampshire speech. Which is why that speech was the only one by a losing candidate that was sincerely, almost giddily joyous. The other candidates had to pretend they were happy with their results.

Paul was genuinely delighted with his, because, after a quarter-century in the wilderness, he’s within reach of putting his cherished cause on the map. Libertarianism will have gone from the fringes — those hopeless, pathetic third-party runs — to a position of prominence in a major party.

Look at him now. He’s getting prime-time air, interviews everywhere and, most important, respect for defeating every Republican candidate but one. His goal is to make himself leader of the opposition — within the Republican Party.

He is Jesse Jackson of the 1980s, who represented a solid, African American, liberal-activist constituency to which, he insisted, attention had to be paid by the Democratic Party. Or Pat Buchanan (briefly) in 1992, who demanded — and gained — on behalf of social conservatives a significant role at a convention that was supposed to be a simple coronation of the moderate George H.W. Bush.

No one remembers Bush’s 1992 acceptance speech. Everyone remembers Buchanan’s fiery and disastrous culture-war address.

At the Democratic conventions, Jackson’s platform demands and speeches drew massive attention, often overshadowing his party’s blander nominees.

Paul won’t quit before the Republican convention in Tampa. He probably will not do well in South Carolina or Florida, but with volunteers even in the more neglected caucus states, he will be relentlessly collecting delegates until Tampa. His goal is to have the second-most delegates, a position of leverage from which to influence the platform and demand a prime-time speaking slot — before deigning to support the nominee at the end. The early days of the convention, otherwise devoid of drama, could very well be all about Paul.

The Democratic convention will be a tightly scripted TV extravaganza extolling the Prince and his wise and kindly rule. The Republican convention could conceivably feature a major address by Paul calling for the abolition of the Fed, FEMA and the CIA; American withdrawal from everywhere; acquiescence to the Iranian bomb — and perhaps even Paul’s opposition to a border fence lest it be used to keep Americans in. Not exactly the steady, measured, reassuring message a Republican convention might wish to convey. For libertarianism, however, it would be a historic moment: mainstream recognition at last.

Put aside your own view of libertarianism or of Paul himself. I see libertarianism as an important critique of the Leviathan state, not a governing philosophy. As for Paul himself, I find him a principled, somewhat wacky, highly engaging eccentric. But regardless of my feelings or yours, the plain fact is that Paul is nurturing his movement toward visibility and legitimacy.

Paul is 76. He knows he’ll never enter the promised land. But he’s clearing the path for son Rand, his better placed (Senate vs. House), more moderate, more articulate successor. [His son Rand Paul sounds like a racist jerk. I would never vote for Rand Paul]

And it matters not whether you find amusement in libertarians practicing dynastic succession. What Paul has already wrought is a signal achievement, the biggest story yet of this presidential campaign.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com

Young voters propelling Ron Paul's campaign

If you are tired with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Ron Paul is your guy!

Source

Young voters propelling Ron Paul's campaign

Associated PressBy BETH FOUHY | Associated Press

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — A 76-year-old great-grandfather who gives eye-glazing speeches on monetary policy, displays a crotchety streak and disappears from the Republican campaign trail for days at a time to rest is captivating young voters.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul's libertarian message of less government, personal liberty and ending U.S. military involvement overseas clicks with young people, who are supplying zest for his stronger-than-expected presidential campaign. Nearly half of all voters under 30 went for Paul in the first two states to vote, helping to propel him to a second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary and third place in Iowa's leadoff caucuses.

Why would young people gravitate to the oldest guy in the field?

"Freedom is a young idea," says Eddie Clearwater, a 22-year-old Des Moines photographer who attended a Ron Paul party in Ankeny, Iowa, earlier this month. "All of his policies are such a good, radical change. It's what we need."

Paul's campaign events are charged with an energy that any politician would love, attracting an eclectic band of youthful activists ranging from preppy college students to blue collar workers to artists sporting piercings and dreadlocks. At his party after the New Hampshire primary, there were spontaneous chants of "Ron Paul Revolution! Give us back our Constitution" and "President Paul! President Paul!"

A tickled Paul told the cheering crowd: "Freedom is a wonderful idea, and that's why I get so excited. But I really get excited when I see young people saying it."

"We are dangerous to the status quo of this country," said Paul, who seems to relish making political mischief and has taken on the role of a feisty attacker in some of the GOP debates.

While Paul is unlikely to win the GOP nomination and young voters make up a relatively small slice of the electorate — 12 percent in the New Hampshire primary and 15 percent in the Iowa caucuses — their lopsided support has made Paul a force to be reckoned with in the 2012 campaign. And it could prompt a more serious consideration of his views by Republicans and Democrats alike.

"Ron Paul is bringing unorthodox ideas to the marketplace that don't fit with the conventional pillars of either political party," said Matthew Segal of OurTime.org, a nonpartisan group that promotes political participation among young people. "And because young people today are a uniquely independent-minded generation, he's resonating with them."

According to polling-place interviews conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks, 53 percent of under-30 voters in New Hampshire and 35 percent in Iowa identified as independents or something else. They are not establishment Republicans, and not as supportive of the tea party movement as their elders.

Paul's critics sometimes poke fun at his popularity with that age group, suggesting they are mainly attracted to his anti-war message and support for liberalizing drug laws, which are both far outside the Republican mainstream.

But the stereotypes belie the reality facing young people.

Polling-place interviews in New Hampshire and Iowa found younger voters in both states were just as likely as older voters to cite the economy as their top concern. Paul won among younger voters who said the economy is the most important issue. Overall, he drew 46 percent of under-30 voters in New Hampshire, beating front-runner Mitt Romney by a full 20 percentage points in that age group. In Iowa, he got 48 percent of the youth vote, 12 points higher than top-two-finishers Romney and Rick Santorum combined.

In interviews, Paul's young supporters say they fear a bleak future of joblessness, steep college loan payments, pandering politicians and a government made sluggish by debt. Paul's pledge to adhere to the Constitution and shrink government appeals to many young voters looking to get back to basics, as does his promise to focus on problems at home.

"We're in such a crisis right now we should focus on us, not choose which country we aid and which country we invade next," said Nick Wright, a 23-year old volunteer at a Paul campaign event in Meredith, N.H.

Jeff Popek, of Meredith, said he believes Paul's plan to slash taxes would spur job creation.

"A lot of us are graduating with a lot of college debt and we can't pay for it unless we get jobs," the 18-year old said.

Many of Paul's younger supporters say they believe the government is overly intrusive and encroaching on civil liberties. They like his pledge to overturn the Patriot Act, which Congress passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to allow law enforcement greater access to people's email, telephone and other records.

The heavily wired generation of younger voters also responds to Paul's warning that the federal government is poised to limit Internet privacy. He often rails against a bill pending in Congress called SOPA, the Stop Online Privacy Act, that Paul insists would allow the government to snoop on people's Internet searches.

"They want to take over the Internet," Paul said to boos at a campaign stop in Iowa. "Can you imagine how much we're going to be curtailed in the spreading of our information if we lose the Internet?

Paul does part ways with younger voters on some issues. He opposes abortion rights, even as polls show that a majority of young people support a woman's right to have an abortion. He says the subject of gay marriage should be left to the states. Polls show young people strongly support same sex marriage, much more so than older voters.

While he might not share their views on these issues, his libertarianism means he's not trying to outlaw them.

After the presidential race shifted to South Carolina this week, Paul decamped to Texas for a few days of rest. His young supporters say age matters little to them. His message, they say, is what matters.

President Barack Obama "should be the poster child for why you shouldn't vote for someone for their age or because they look presidential," said Anthony Mazaka, a 27-year-old architect who voted for Paul in New Hampshire. "People have to realize Obama isn't the president he said he was going to be."

Obama won 66 percent of young voters in 2008 and is working hard to reclaim them. But Obama's popularity has dipped with young voters, as it has with many other groups amid a weak economy and persistent high unemployment.

Paul's young supporters may choose not to back either Obama or the Republican primary victor. And Paul hasn't ruled out a third party candidacy, which could keep many young voters in his camp.

"Any political operative in either party would be stupid to ignore Ron Paul's appeal," Segal said.

___

News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius in Washington and Luke Meredith in Ankeny, Iowa, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Ron Paul's victory

Is the fix in on district attorney search?

Posted: Jan. 15, 2012 | 2:05 a.m.

I see where the Clark County Commission received seven applications to replace District Attorney David Roger, who resigned the post just one year after telling voters he really, really wanted another four-year term.

The field was promptly thinned to three (instead of five, as ordered) by a seven-lawyer "screening committee" clearly not immune from political influence. Not even making this first cut was former deputy district attorney (and former elected District Court judge) Don Chairez, the only applicant who'd actually bothered to challenge Roger for the office, losing a close 2010 race by 20,000 votes out of nearly 500,000 cast.

Could that be because Chairez accused Roger of being soft on political corruption in the county, pointing out the only way crooked county commissioners ever go to jail in these parts is when the federals step in?

Could it be because Chairez made it clear he'd take a closer look at questionable police shootings, like those of Erik Scott and Trevon Cole?

Now that hands-off-the-cops David Roger has moved on -- to a job with the police union, surprise! -- we'll soon know, especially if the commission chooses the hand-picked candidate of that same police union (and of state Supreme Court Justice Mark Gibbons, who wrote an ethically unusual endorsement letter): Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Wolfson.

Ron Paul's victory

They say when you stand at the base of the great pyramid of Khufu and look up, you don't see a pyramid, at all. The proportions are so vast that the third dimension drops away. It appears you're simply gazing up at a new horizon.

Sometimes we get so close to things it's hard to see them with a proper perspective. I believe that happened to most of the newshounds in New Hampshire Tuesday night.

They've been following the inside baseball among the Republican presidential candidates for so long that they seemed to miss the obvious: Tuesday was the first time many Americans changed the channel and watched Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul speak for a few minutes.

And what a contrast they saw.

The candidate now widely referred to as the Mitt-bot checked his five-year itinerary and noted this was the night to deliver a scripted speech designed to convey the subtext: "Ignore these Republican also-rans who have now fallen by the wayside. As from tonight, this race is mano-a-mano -- me against Barack Obama."

Thus the "He passed ObamaCare; I'll repeal it" comparisons, which actually read much better on paper than they played out Tuesday night, with a candidate who never seemed to be able to settle on a challenge-and-response rhythm with his own cheering section.

I heard commentators say Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, sounded angry. In fact, what nags one about Romney is that he doesn't seem to be able to channel any recognizable emotion at all.

His "pace yourself for a five-year marathon" approach will likely prevail. It's just incapable of evoking any real enthusiasm, meaning Republicans will simply have to hope he's a good enough manager to oversee the launch of the biggest corporate downsizing in history, overcoming quite understandable qualms among the GOP rank and file that they haven't fared all that well with "Democrat Lite" candidates like John McCain. (The difference between Obamacare and RomneyCare is ...?)

Compare that with Paul's Tuesday night speech, which drew virtually no comment from the press.

Generally, any candidate who whines, "OK we lost; but our ideas got out there!" could be dismissed as pathetic.

Clearly Paul is not delusional enough to believe his 23 percent "beat" Romney's 39 percent in Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary. But he didn't sound the slightest bit disappointed or petulant as he declared the results a victory not for him, but for liberty. In fact, he sounded downright exuberant.

Paul doesn't seem to care that his grandpa voice is not ready for radio, that it sometimes goes too high and breaks. He's clearly having a ball, sticking with a message he didn't have to study and memorize up in the hotel room this afternoon (see Texas Gov. Rick Perry, trying to remember which three federal departments he supposedly wants to close).

Let everyone else in the field regurgitate their carefully pureed sound bites. Paul insists that without him, none of these guys would even be talking about the looming financial crisis brought on by the Federal Reserve, the debasement of the dollar and insane levels of spending and borrowing -- let alone our counterproductive and vastly expensive overseas adventures.

The paid-for pawns of the military-industrial hegemony -- both pundit and politician -- claim Paul would leave us defenseless. On Tuesday the former Air Force officer, who often polls best among actual members of the military, knocked that out of the park, insisting:

"If we tell people we think we should spend less on the military, they say, 'Oh, that means you want to cut defense.' No, if you cut the military-industrial complex, you cut war profiteering, but you don't take one penny out of national defense.

"I sort of have to chuckle when they describe you and me as being 'dangerous,' " Paul went on. "That's one thing (about which) they're telling the truth, because we are dangerous to the status quo of this country. And we will remain a danger to the Federal Reserve system. ...

"Just think: This is the first presidential campaign that the subject ever came up since the Federal Reserve was started. So ... because of what is happening, it will remain a dominant issue. There's no way they're going to put it to bed, because they have destroyed our money. It's worldwide. There's a financial crisis going on. And it's only sound money and personal liberty that can solve the crisis. ...

"You have to stop the inflation, because that's what destroys the middle class. ... That's why the wealthy got their bailouts and the middle class shrunk and they lost their jobs and they lost their houses. ...

"We have to cut the spending. This is why I have made a token suggestion in the first year in office: We would cut at least $1 trillion from the budget. ...

"If you are a true humanitarian," Paul concluded, "you have to fight and argue the case for free markets, sound money, property rights, contract rights, no use of force, and a sensible foreign policy."

His "irate minority" is "going to continue to grow by leaps and bounds," Paul vows. "And we will restore freedom to this country."

If somebody else on the campaign trail has charted that bold a course back to more freedom and less government, if someone else on the campaign trail in the past quarter-century has sounded that unscripted yet inspirational, I must have missed it.

Re-legalize it

Re-legalize it

Posted by Vin Suprynowicz

Monday, Jan. 09, 2012 at 02:03 PM

Watch the Lamestream Media continue to dismiss top-tier GOP presidential contender U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, as an "unelectable crank" because he argues our endless, undeclared, "no-win" overseas wars are both unaffordable and counterproductive; because he argues the delegation of the congressional power and duty to guarantee the soundness of the dollar to a "Federal Reserve Board" has been a disaster, and because he embraces some kind of "weird" or "iconoclastic" definition of inflation that contends inflation consists of the unjustified expansion of the money supply in order to enrich the banksters, robbing Americans through the resultant "slow-motion" devaluation of the buying power of their savings.

(If Congressman Paul "hates the armed forces," why does he poll so well among them?)

Now note how LITTLE attention these desperate harridans now pay to the positions for which Libertarians were previously reviled as "unrealistic nut-jobs," especially the notion that the federal government should be restricted to those powers speficially enumerated in the Constitution, whereupon Libertarians often point out that a Constitutional amendment was enacted in 1919 (subsequently repealed in 1933 at the behest of the liberal Saint Roosevelt) to authorize the federal War on Booze, but that no parallel Constitutional amendment has ever been enacted to authorize the War on (Some) Drugs ... particularly those previously legal plant extracts historically favored by our black and Hispanic minorities.

Now see John Whitehead, of The Rutherford Institute, document the ongoing racist nature of America's Failed War on Drugs

Ron Paul: 16 Eye Opening Things You Don’t Know

Ron Paul: 16 Eye Opening Things You Don’t Know

By MAUREEN MACKEY, The Fiscal Times

December 26, 2011

If Ron Paul were elected president, you could probably smoke in public places, drive gas-guzzling cars, keep your shoes on at airport security, and pray in public schools. His “hands off” approach to government has made him the de facto leader of the Tea Party and a long-time favorite of libertarians throughout the country. Election 2012 Complete Coverage

You may think you know everything there is to know about Ron Paul, whose poll numbers have been rising dramatically as the Iowa caucuses approach. He’s the candidate who signed a pledge from Personhood USA, an anti-abortion-rights group, possibly because as an obstetrician-gynecologist throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Paul (a father of five) delivered more than 4,000 babies before entering politics in 1976.

The 76-year-old Paul also says he wants to:

Balance the federal budget

Eliminate the Federal Reserve

Defund five Cabinet departments (including Commerce, Interior and Education) to save over $700 billion over four years

Eliminate the supplemental nutrition program for women and children at the Department of Agriculture

Bring home all American troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, and…

Legalize pot.

Paul founded the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE) in the 1970s, a tax-exempt organization that publishes newsletters, including “Ron Paul’s Freedom Report.” The Report espouses “an opportunity for greater public awareness of the limited-government principles that have been, until recently, absent from public debate.”

Although many agree with Paul’s positions on smaller government and lower taxes, they may bristle at his more controversial statements over the years about race and other social issues. Last Wednesday, Paul abruptly ended an interview with CNN’s Gloria Borger when she asked him about incendiary statements included in some of his past newsletters. One example: “If you’ve ever been robbed by a black teenaged male, you know how unbelievably fleet of foot they can be.” Paul distanced himself from these comments, saying he did not write them but that he was “morally responsible” for them since they went out under his name.

Many of Paul's positions have been given a full airing in speeches, campaign appearances, debates, bus tours and elsewhere, but the 12-term congressman’s book, Liberty Defined, while not a blueprint, is also rife with controversial positions and opinions.

In addition to the 9 points mentioned above, here’s a smattering of other Ron Paul notable viewpoints:

On 9/11: Paul was the only Republican to vote against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002, claiming that the government used 9/11 as an excuse to curb civil liberties and invade Iraq.

On defense spending: “Billions of dollars have been spent on the M-1 tank over the years and yet there has never been a need for it for the defense of our country – it was purely a military-industrial complex boondoggle to serve the interests of the demands of big business and big labor and to save Chrysler and at that time to stick it to General Motors. But in the end, General Motors got its bailout, too.”

On taxes: “’Taxes are the price we pay for civilization,’ according to Oliver Wendell Holmes. This claim has cost us dearly… If we as a nation continue to believe that paying for civilization through taxation is a wise purchase and the only way to achieve civilization, we are doomed.”

On unions and government labor laws: “Union power, gained by legislation, even without physical violence, is still violence. The laborer gains legal force over the employer. Economically, in the long run, labor loses… If only it were so easy to help the working class.”

On individual freedoms: “Government should not compel or prohibit any personal activity when that activity poses danger to that individual alone. Drinking and smoking marijuana is one thing, but driving recklessly under the influence is quite another. When an individual threatens the lives of others, there is a role for government to restrain that violence.”

On markets, the individual, and Austrian economics: “The phrase ‘Austrian School’ or ‘Austrian economics’ [as founded by Carl Menger] is not something I ever expected would enter into the vocabulary of politics… But since 2008, it has. Reporters use it with some degree of understanding, and with an expectation that readers and viewers will understand it too. This is just thrilling to me, for I am a longstanding student of the Austrian tradition of thought… We need markets to reveal to us the valuations of consumers and producers in the form of the price system that works within a market setting.”

On a welfare state: “We need to surrender our attachments to government in every aspect of life. This goes for the right and the left. We need to give up our dependencies on the state, materially and spiritually. We should not look to the state to provide for us financially or psychologically… Let us understand that it is far better to live in an imperfect world than it is to live in a despotic world ruled by people who lord it over us through force and intimidation.”

On the power of liberty: “Liberty built civilization. It can rebuild civilization.”

Paul fights Washington spending, flies first class

Of course despite this article Ron Paul seems to be real about his attempts to cut government fat and waste. He ain't called Dr. No for nothing.

Source

Paul fights Washington spending, flies first class

Associated PressBy BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and STEPHEN BRAUN | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been spending large amounts on airfare as a congressman, flying first class on dozens of taxpayer-funded flights to his home state. The practice conflicts with the image that Paul portrays as the only presidential candidate serious about cutting federal spending.

Paul flew first class on at least 31 round-trip flights and 12 one-way flights since May 2009 when he was traveling between Washington and his district in Texas, according to a review by The Associated Press of his congressional office expenses. Four other round-trip tickets and two other one-way tickets purchased during the period were eligible for upgrades to first-class after they were bought, but those upgrades would not be documented in the expense records.

Paul, whose distrust of big government is the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, trusts the more expensive government rate for Continental Airlines when buying his tickets. Paul chose not to buy the cheaper economy tickets at a fraction of the price because they aren't refundable or as flexible for scheduling, his congressional staff said.

"We always get him full refundable tickets since the congressional schedule sometimes changes quickly," said Jeff Deist, Paul's chief of staff. Paul might have to pay out of his own pocket for canceled flights in some cases if he didn't buy refundable tickets, Deist said.

But records show that most of the flights for Paul were purchased well in advance and few schedule changes were necessary. Nearly two-thirds of the 49 tickets were purchased at least two weeks in advance, and 42 percent were bought at least three weeks in advance, the AP's review found.

Paul charged taxpayers nearly $52,000 on the more expensive tickets, or $27,621 more than the average Continental airfare for the flights between Washington and Houston, according to the AP's review of his congressional expenses and average airfares compiled by the Department of Transportation.

The more expensive tickets have other benefits as well, including allowing Paul to upgrade to first class when his staff reserves a flight because his frequent government travel gives him membership in an elite class of Continental customers who earn travel perks. Upgrades to first-class with cheaper fares are possible, at times limited to available seats days before the flight. But those upgrades are not guaranteed and some require ticket changes at the airport, according to the airline's frequent flyer rules.

The AP reviewed congressional travel before the Iowa caucuses for the two members of Congress running at the time — Paul and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Bachmann later ended her presidential campaign.

House records show Bachmann, like most other congressional members, also paid the more expensive government rate for airfare. But her staff would not provide access to more detailed expense records that show when and what type of tickets were purchased.

Paul's congressional staff provided access to all expense records requested.

Congressional members don't have to pay the government rate for travel, but most do, including many like Paul and Bachmann who advocate cuts in federal spending.

"You could almost always beat the government rate," said Steve Ellis, vice president of the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense, a federal budget watchdog group. "They need to be walking the walk, and one of the ways they can do that is to be fiscally responsible for how they spend their member office money."

Jesse Benton, Paul's campaign manager, didn't respond to a written request to explain how Paul's use of more expensive airfare, which allows him to fly first class, corresponds with his commitment to cut federal spending. Instead, he sent a statement that started, "No one is more committed to cutting spending than Dr. Paul."

But Paul's congressional travel conflicts with claims in campaign appearances that he's the most frugal and serious deficit hawk in the race.

"The talk you hear in Washington is pure talk, because there is nobody suggesting, the other candidates are not talking about real cuts," Paul said in a speech to supporters last week after his second-place finish in New Hampshire.

He has proposed cutting $1 trillion from the federal budget during his first year as president, and has confronted other candidates in public forums as "big government conservatives."

"You're a big spender, that's all there is to it," Paul told former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania during a GOP debate in New Hampshire.

Paul boasts on his website about declining other congressional perks, such as a pension and all-expense-paid travel "junkets" that other lawmakers take. And he says he regularly returns money from his congressional account to the treasury.

But when it comes to his congressional travel, Paul has opted not to search for cheaper airfares that could mean returning more of his office account to the treasury, which uses any money returned by House or Senate members to help reduce the federal deficit.

Paul paid $51,972 for his government-rate flights between Washington and Houston between May 2009 and March 2011, or more than twice the $24,351 average airfare on Continental for travel between Washington and Houston. The average airfare figure represents the price for all tickets purchased for Continental flights between Washington and Houston, including economy and first-class travel, according to the Transportation Department's Domestic Airline Fares Consumer Report, which collects airfare information for the nation's busiest travel routes.

Paul's staff regularly booked him in first class on flights when tickets were purchased, according to expense records. His office paid between $1,217 and $1,311 for each round-trip flight, compared to the average airfare for that trip ranging from $528 to $760, according to the airline fares consumer report.

The period reviewed by the AP was the most recent period for which complete congressional expense records were available.

Ron Paul Addresses Boos From GOP Debate

Ron Paul Addresses Boos From South Carolina GOP Debate

ABC News

By Jason M. Volack | ABC News

Ron Paul is pushing back against critics of his "Golden Rule" in foreign policy and questioned those who booed him at Monday's GOP presidential debate.

Speaking in Spartanburg, S. C. Tuesday afternoon, Paul referenced America's threats of an oil embargo on Iran.

"This is why I bring up the "the golden rule" if we don't want people to ban oil imports to our country, why should we do that to another country," said Paul adding "I don't know why that is such a negative term for people to boo that. "

Paul also said that America needs to do away with the idea that it will only talk to nations it deems as perfect adding only until America is itself perfect can it make such judgments.

Paul's willingness to stand up for what he believes in when it comes to U.S. involvement in foreign countries hurt him repeatedly in Monday's debate.

The conservative Republican electorate in South Carolina booed Paul's answers on foreign policy and Texas Gov. Rick Perry even suggested that a gong should have been used to cut Paul off.

On Wednesday, Paul takes a break from the campaign trail and returns to Washington to vote against the increase in the nation's debt ceiling.

The fiscal conservative called Wednesday's vote a "gimmick" and said even if Congress votes it down it automatically goes into effect.

"It's such a mess," said Paul.

Opps -Santorum beat Romney in Iowa by 34

But Ron Paul still finished third

GOP: Santorum beat Romney in Iowa by 34

by Thomas Beaumont - Jan. 19, 2012 07:02 AM

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Rick Santorum edged front-runner Mitt Romney by 34 votes in a surprise flip to the final tally of the Iowa caucuses, but no winner will be declared because some votes remain missing in the event's closest finish ever, Republican officials said Thursday.

Romney had initially been considered the winner -- by just 8 votes -- of the first contest in the GOP presidential nomination contest.

Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn is scheduled to announce the certified vote totals Thursday morning. Republican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to pre-empt his announcement, said Strawn wouldn't declare a winner because some votes can't be counted. Votes from 8 of the state's 1,774 precincts are missing.

Although the final tally from the Jan. 3 caucuses remains excruciatingly close, the new numbers could give a boost to Santorum and other candidates trying to undermine Romney's dominance over the field as South Carolina primary voters go to the polls Saturday.

An Iowa GOP source, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the certified results would show Santorum with 29,839 votes and Romney at 29,805, a difference of 34. Ron Paul finished third with 26,036 votes.

In a statement, Romney called it a "virtual tie." The former Massachusetts governor praised Santorum's "strong performance" in the state.

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, and other GOP candidates are vying to attract voters seeking a more conservative alternative to Romney, who followed Iowa with a solid victory in New Hampshire, the second contest of the race.

The Des Moines Register first reported the certified caucus totals on Thursday.

Why does he want a job that pays a measly $400,000

Source

January 24, 2012, 12:35 am

Romney Tax Returns Show 2-Year Income of $45 Million

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERG

Mitt Romney’s campaign released details of his federal tax returns on Tuesday morning, showing that he is likely to pay a total of $6.2 million in taxes on $45 million in income over the two tax years of 2010 and 2011. (View full returns here)

The details of the returns, confirmed by a senior campaign official, provide the most detailed view yet of his wealthy family’s finances. The disclosure comes after a barrage of pressure to release his returns — which Mr. Romney has never done, even when he was elected governor of Massachusetts.

The disclosure — reported early Tuesday by The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News — showed a vast array of investments, from a recently closed Swiss bank account to holdings in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, all underscoring the breadth and depth of his wealth, which has become a central issue in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Mr. Romney said last week that his effective tax rate was “about 15 percent,” a figure lower than that of many affluent Americans. But his returns suggested that he paid an effective tax rate of nearly 14 percent.

In addition to his 2010 taxes, Mr. Romney is set to release estimates for his 2011 taxes, which he will file in April. The campaign will report that he will pay $3.2 million in taxes for 2011, for an effective tax rate of 15.4 percent. That is a slightly higher effective rate than he paid the year before, when he paid about $3 million to the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr. Romney, a Mormon, has long said that he had promised to give 10 percent of his income to his church. His tax return shows that over two years he and his wife, Ann, gave $7 million in charitable contributions, including $4.1 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more,” Mr. Romney said during Monday night’s debate. “I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.”

Mr. Romney also said that there were “no surprises” in his tax returns. Referring to the fact that nearly all of his income is taxed as capital gains at a 15 percent rate, rather than as earned income at rates of up to 35 percent, Mr. Romney questioned a proposal by Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, to reduce capital gains taxes to zero.

“Under that plan, I’d have paid no taxes in the last two years,” Mr. Romney said.

The Romneys hold as much as a quarter of a billion dollars in assets, much of it derived from Mr. Romney’s time as founder and partner in Bain Capital, a private equity firm. And in federal financial disclosures Mr. Romney made when he began his presidential campaign he said those assets generated at least $9.6 million in income in 2010 and part of 2011, most of it from capital gains, dividends and interest on their investments.

Questions about Mr. Romney’s wealth have dogged him for weeks as his rivals for the Republican nomination assailed his tenure at Bain Capital and pressed for details about his taxes.

Mr. Romney hesitated repeatedly when asked whether he would release his tax returns, as his father had done when he was running for president several decades ago.

Initially, Mr. Romney said that he had no intention of releasing his tax returns, maintaining that the financial disclosure reports that all federal candidates must provide should suffice.

But the pressure grew stronger when Mr. Romney — apparently in an offhand, unplanned way — acknowledged that he pays about 15 percent in taxes, most of it on dividends and capital gains.

Following that statement, the pressure grew for Mr. Romney to release more information by making his tax returns public. Mr. Gingrich pressed him on the issue in two debates

Details about Mr. Romney’s tax payments, wealth and income will inevitably be compared with similar disclosures already made by Mr. Gingrich, as well the man Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich hope to unseat, President Obama.

Mr. Gingrich, who on Saturday won the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, released his own tax returns last week showing that he and his wife, Callista, had an adjusted gross income of $3,162,424 from their various business ventures in 2010. They paid $994,708 in federal tax, according to the return, for an effective tax rate of 31.7 percent.

Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, released their tax returns in April, showing an adjusted gross income of $1,728,096 for 2010 — much of it from sales of his books “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.” The Obamas paid $453,770 in federal taxes, for an effective tax rate of 26.3 percent.

During the debate, Mr. Romney had predicted that there would be little in his tax returns that would prove to be controversial.

“You’ll see my income, how much taxes I’ve paid, how much I’ve paid to charity,” Mr. Romney added in the debate. “You’ll see how complicated taxes can be. And will there be discussion? Sure. Will it be an article? Yeah. But is it entirely legal and fair? Absolutely. I’m proud of the fact that I pay a lot of taxes.”

But the documents are sure to be a source of ammunition for his Republican rivals and his Democratic critics, who have made his personal wealth an issue as he seeks the nomination of his party.

In a memorandum to reporters on Sunday, Bill Burton, a former deputy press secretary to Mr. Obama, hammered Mr. Romney for his initial unwillingness to release his returns.

“Even though he is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Romney pays a lower tax rate than many middle class Americans,” said Mr. Burton, who now runs a “super PAC” on behalf of Mr. Obama.

“Romney also has access to complicated legal maneuvers involving offshore accounts and retirement savings that simply are not available to everyday Americans,” Mr. Burton said.

Debate

On the other hand if NBC is attempting to silence Ron Paul and Rick Santorum they shouldn't pretend that the debates are unbiased and fair.

Source

Brian Williams was a Disgrace Silencing Ron Paul, Rick Santorum

By Roy A. Barnes

COMMENTARY | The four remaining GOP presidential candidates debated in Tampa, Fla., on Monday night on NBC, moderated by the "NBC Nightly News" grandstanding anchor Brian Williams. This spectacle was mostly a dialogue between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. During the first part of the debate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum were basically left out. BuzzFeed reported Paul and Santorum spoke less than five minutes for the first one-third of the program.

This program was a massive disgrace. Williams should be ashamed of himself for generally excluding Santorum and Paul. If these debates aren't going to strive to give equal time to the participants, why do the organizers even bother to invite those who they are going to disrespect?

According to The Hill, during the first 40 minutes, Paul only got to speak once and Santorum got to talk twice. Watching the first part of the debate made me feel very uncomfortable because I kept thinking about how Paul and Santorum must've been feeling being left out and having to stand and listen to long blocks of dialogue between Romney and Gingrich. They traded barbs over things like the former's charge of the latter being involved in "influence peddling," as reported by ABC News.

This debate lasted just less than 100 minutes, as reported by USA Today but when factoring in the irritating commercial breaks, it was even less. This debate was a wasted opportunity, but Santorum and Paul didn't protest, acting very polite despite being disrespected by Williams.

Yet the establishment media has been signaling the GOP race is down to two candidates, for on Sunday, the host of "Face the Nation," Bob Schieffer, called for a one-hour debate between just Gingrich and Romney, according to HuffPost Media.

I am tired of debate moderators who do not strive to let everyone have as close to equal time as possible. The establishment TV media continues to try to influence how the public will vote, especially when they deny equal time to all the debate candidates.

The public shouldn't take the bait, but instead be discerning and be informed outside of prime time, because an informed citizen is the biggest deterrent against the biased, scheming talking heads on TV like Williams.

More on Ron Paul for President

This is a link to a number of articles I have been posting about Ron Paul. If this is Ernie Hancock or Mike Renzulli please get lost. Why are you guys bothering me?

Ron Paul calls for diplomatic relations with Cuba

Ron Paul calls for diplomatic relations with Cuba

By Alana Semuels

January 26, 2012, 7:19 p.m.

Ron Paul took a risky position in Florida in Thursday’s debate, calling for communication and diplomatic relations with Cuba, saying that people's positions have changed dramatically over the last few years.

Paul said that Cuba isn’t going to invade the U.S. any time soon, and that Americans weren’t looking under their beds anymore, worried. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich followed by pledging to continue the economic embargo on Cuba and to take any action short of military invasion to upend the government of Raul Castro.

Paul’s position is a potentially dangerous one in Florida, a state with a influential voting bloc of conservative Republicans from Cuba who have long favored aggressive policies toward Havana.

But a study of Cuban American voters in Florida suggests that Paul might be right, and that voters' opinions about Cuba are changing. Support for tightening the embargo dropped by roughly half between 2004 and 2008, according to a study by Benjamin Bishin, a UC Riverside professor.

Cuban Americans’ support for easing the embargo increased to 43.4%, from 26.7% in 2004, and support for easing travel restrictions increased to 47.4% from 32.9%, Bishin found. “Cuban Americans’ attitudes on issues of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba seems to be in transition,” he wrote in a 2009 study.

More on those racist newsletters

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Ron Paul signed off on racist newsletters in the 1990s, associates say

By Jerry Markon and Alice Crites, Friday, January 27, 6:29 AM

Ron Paul, well known as a physician, congressman and libertarian , has also been a businessman who pursued a marketing strategy that included publishing provocative, racially charged newsletters to make money and spread his ideas, according to three people with direct knowledge of Paul’s businesses.

The Republican presidential candidate has denied writing inflammatory passages in the pamphlets from the 1990s and said recently that he did not read them at the time or for years afterward. Numerous colleagues said he does not hold racist views.

But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day.

“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it,’’ said Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Paul’s company and a supporter of the Texas congressman.

The newsletters point to a rarely seen and somewhat opaque side of Paul, who has surprised the political community by becoming an important factor in the Republican race. The candidate, who has presented himself as a kindly doctor and political truth-teller, declined in a recent debate to release his tax returns, joking that he would be “embarrassed” about his income compared with that of his richer GOP rivals.

Yet a review of his enterprises reveals a sharp-eyed businessman who for nearly two decades oversaw the company and a nonprofit foundation, intertwining them with his political career. The newsletters, which were launched in the mid-1980s and bore such names as the Ron Paul Survival Report, were produced by a company Paul dissolved in 2001.

The company shared offices with his campaigns and foundation at various points, according to those familiar with the operation. Public records show Paul’s wife and daughter were officers of the newsletter company and foundation; his daughter also served as his campaign treasurer.

Jesse Benton, a presidential campaign spokesman, said that the accounts of Paul’s involvement were untrue and that Paul was practicing medicine full time when “the offensive material appeared under his name.” Paul “abhors it, rejects it and has taken responsibility for it as he should have better policed the work being done under his masthead,” Benton said. He did not comment on Paul’s business strategy.

Mark Elam, a longtime Paul associate whose company printed the newsletters, said Paul “was a busy man” at the time. “He was in demand as a speaker; he was traveling around the country,’’ Elam said in an interview coordinated by Paul’s campaign. “I just do not believe he was either writing or regularly editing this stuff.’’

In the past, Paul has taken responsibility for the passages because they were published under his name. But last month, he told CNN that he was unaware at the time of the controversial passages. “I’ve never read that stuff. I’ve never read — I came — was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written.’’ Paul said.

A person involved in Paul’s businesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid criticizing a former employer, said Paul and his associates decided in the late 1980s to try to increase sales by making the newsletters more provocative. They discussed adding controversial material, including racial statements, to help the business, the person said.

“It was playing on a growing racial tension, economic tension, fear of government,’’ said the person, who supports Paul’s economic policies but is not backing him for president. “I’m not saying Ron believed this stuff. It was good copy. Ron Paul is a shrewd businessman.’’

The articles included racial, anti-Semitic and anti-gay content. They claimed, for example, that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “seduced underage girls and boys’’; they ridiculed black activists by suggesting that New York be named “Zooville” or “Lazyopolis”; and they said the 1992 Los Angeles riots ended “when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.’’ The June 1990 edition of the Ron Paul Political Report included the statement: “Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.”

It is unclear precisely how much money Paul made from his newsletters, but during the years he was publishing them, he reduced his debts and substantially increased his net worth, according to his congressional and presidential disclosure reports. In 1984, he reported debt of up to $765,000, most of which was gone by 1995, when he reported a net worth of up to $3.3 million. Last year, he reported a net worth up to $5.2 million.

The newsletters bore his name in large print and featured articles on topics ranging from investment advice to political commentary. Frequently written in first person, they contained personalized notes, such as holiday greetings from Paul and his wife, Carol.

The Washington Post obtained dozens of copies of the newsletters from the Wisconsin Historical Society. Texas news outlets wrote about them in 1996, and the New Republic published extensive excerpts in 2008. The issue resurfaced late last year, when Paul’s presidential campaign picked up momentum. The extent of Paul’s involvement and his business strategy had not been known.

Paul’s publishing operation began through a nonprofit organization he created in 1976, the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, which advocates for limited government and a free market. The group, founded the year Paul entered Congress, published Ron Paul’s Freedom Report, mostly a collection of his congressional speeches and commentaries.

In 1984, just before losing a Senate bid and leaving Congress, Paul formed Ron Paul & Associates. He soon began publishing the Ron Paul Investment Letter, initially offering mostly economic and monetary information. Texas tax records listed Paul as president of the business, his wife as secretary, his daughter, Lori Paul Pyeatt, as treasurer, and a longtime Paul associate, Lew Rockwell, as vice president.

Ed Crane, the longtime president of the libertarian Cato Institute, said he met Paul for lunch during this period, and the two men discussed direct-mail solicitations, which Paul was sending out to interest people in his newsletters. They agreed that “people who have extreme views” are more likely than others to respond.

Crane said Paul reported getting his best response when he used a mailing list from the now-defunct newspaper Spotlight, which was widely considered anti-Semitic and racist.

Benton, Paul’s spokesman, said that Crane’s account “sounds odd” and that Paul did not recall the conversation.

At the time, Paul’s investment letter was languishing. According to the person involved with his businesses, Paul and others hit upon a solution: to “morph” the content to capi­tal­ize on a growing fear among some on the political right about the nation’s changing demographics and threats to economic liberty.

The investment letter became the Ron Paul Survival Report — a name designed to intrigue readers, the company secretary said. It cost subscribers about $100 a year. The tone of that and other Paul publications changed, becoming increasingly controversial. In 1992, for example, the Ron Paul Political Report defended chess champion Bobby Fischer, who became known as an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier, for his stance on “Jewish questions.’’

Paul has said he wrote portions of the economic sections. The people familiar with his business said there was no indication that he wrote the controversial material.

Rockwell was the main writer of the racial passages, according to two people with direct knowledge of the business and a third close to Paul’s presidential campaign. Rockwell, founder of a libertarian think tank in Alabama, did not respond to phone calls and e-mails requesting comment. In 2008, he denied in an interview with the New Republic that he was Paul’s ghostwriter.

Paul “had to walk a very fine line,’’ said Eric Dondero Rittberg, a former longtime Paul aide who says Paul allowed the controversial material in his newsletter as a way to make money. Dondero Rittberg said he witnessed Paul proofing, editing and signing off on his newsletters in the mid-1990s.

“The real big money came from some of that racially tinged stuff, but he also had to keep his libertarian supporters, and they weren’t at all comfortable with that,’’ he said.

Dondero Rittberg is no longer a Paul supporter, and officials with Paul’s presidential campaign have said he was fired. Dondero Rittberg disputed that, saying he resigned in 2003 because he opposed Paul’s views on Iraq.

The July 15, 1994, issue of Survival Report exemplified how the newsletters merged material about race with a pitch for business. It contained a passage criticizing the rate of black-on-white crime when “blacks are only 12 percent of the population.’’ That was accompanied by two pages of ads from Ron Paul Precious Metals & Rare Coins, a business Paul used to sell gold and silver coins.

“The explosion you hear may not be the Fourth of July fireworks but the price of silver shooting up,’’ said one of the ads.

Hathway, the former Ron Paul & Associates secretary, said: “We had tons of subscribers, from all over the world. . . . I never had one complaint’’ about the content.

Hathway described Paul as a “hands-on boss” who would come in to the company’s Houston office, about 50 miles from his home, about once a week. And he would call frequently. “He’d ask, ‘How are you doing? Do you need any more money in the account?’ ” she said.

The company also had an office in Clute, Tex., near Paul’s home, which it shared with Paul’s foundation and his campaigns at various points, according to Hathway and Dondero Rittberg.

In 1996, as Paul ran for Congress again, his business success turned into a potential political liability when his newsletters surfaced in the Texas media. Paul was quoted in the Dallas Morning News that year as defending a newsletter line from 1992 that said 95 percent of black men in the District are “semi-criminal or entirely criminal” and that black teenagers can be “unbelievably fleet of foot.”

“If you try to catch someone that has stolen a purse from you, there is no chance to catch them,” the newspaper quoted Paul as saying.

Paul won reelection, then dissolved Ron Paul & Associates in 2001. His nonprofit foundation is still in operation.

Staff researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.

Ron Paul Challenges His Republican Rivals for a 25-Mile Bike Ride

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Ron Paul Challenges His Republican Rivals for a 25-Mile Bike Ride

By SREEJA VN:

January 27, 2012 8:11 AM EST

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul challenged his much younger rivals to a bike ride to prove his physical fitness after moderator Wolf Blitzer had asked him about his age and health in the CNN-Florida debate Thursday.

Blitzer asked 76-year-old Paul whether he was ready to release his medical records to prove that he was fit enough to handle the president's job and the challenges associated with it. Paul replied that he was perfectly willing to do so as it was only a one-page record.

He didn't stop at that and said he would challenge his Republican rivals for a 25-mile bike ride in the Texas heat anytime.

He reminded Blitzer of the U.S. laws against age discrimination and said the moderator would land himself in trouble if he continued to bring the age issue every now and then.

Paul is the oldest of the Republican candidates in the poll fray. He is known for his grass root campaign strategies and is much active in the campaign trail.

Doonesbury makes fund of Ron Paul

Dr. Paul, your candidacy defies understanding.

Excuse me? While everyone shares some of your views, very few people share them all. Does he mean like ending the insane "war on drugs"? Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Cutting the literally billions of dollars in government welfare programs for rich corporations in the industrial military complex? Ending the unconstitutional Patriot Act? Ending the Homeland Security and TSA, who's main functions is to grope and feel up travelers at airports? Expecting Americans to pay 30 percent of their income to support the insane, bloated Federal bureaucracy? In addition to paying another 10 percent of their income to support their bloated state government bureaucracies?

The fact is, your philosophy is pure utopianism. No modern society could function under a Libertarian government, which is why none exists. I suspect King George and all the other tyrants in the 18th century said that about the new dangled democracy brought on by the American revolution. Give Libertarianism a little time. The Libertarian Party was only founded in the 1970's.

Is there a question in there? No. What would be the point? I suspect the point is that the author of Doonesbury wants you to write off Ron Paul and Libertarianism without analyzing the it. Of course he doesn't want that to happen because it would cut into the status quo the Democratic and Republican Parties have.

Mitt Romney is a Washington outsider who wants to cut government pork & fat

If you really want to cut government fat and bureaucracy support Ron Paul. While talk is cheep and candidates routinely lie about their status of being Washington outsiders who want to cut government pork and waste, Ron Paul has a 20 year track record to prove he votes like he talks. Of course the insiders in the Republic Party hate Ron Paul for that very reason. That's why Dr. Paul earned the nickname of "Dr. No"

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Close Ties to Goldman Enrich Romney’s Public and Private Lives

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, PETER LATTMAN and KEVIN ROOSE

Published: January 27, 2012

When Bain Capital sought to raise money in 1989 for a fast-growing office-supply company named Staples, Mitt Romney, Bain’s founder, called upon a trusted business partner: Goldman Sachs, whose bankers led the company’s initial public offering.

When Mr. Romney became governor of Massachusetts, his blind trust gave Goldman much of his wealth to manage, a fortune now estimated to be as much as $250 million.

And as Mr. Romney mounts his second bid for the presidency, Goldman is coming through again: Its employees have contributed at least $367,000 to his campaign, making the firm Mr. Romney’s largest single source of campaign money through the end of September.

No other company is so closely intertwined with Mr. Romney’s public and private lives except Bain itself. And in recent days, Mr. Romney’s ties to Goldman Sachs have lashed another lightning rod to a campaign already fending off withering attacks on his career as a buyout specialist, thrusting the privileges of the Wall Street elite to the forefront of the Republican nominating battle.

Newt Gingrich, whose allies have spent millions of dollars on advertisements painting Mr. Romney as a heartless “vulture capitalist,” seized on Mr. Romney’s Goldman ties at Thursday’s Republican debate in Florida, suggesting that he had profited through Goldman on banks that had foreclosed on Floridians. And as the fight over regulation of financial firms spills onto the campaign trail, Mr. Romney’s support for the industry — he has called for repeal of the Dodd-Frank legislation tightening oversight of Wall Street — may draw more fire.

Mr. Romney’s positions and pedigree have helped draw to his side major donors in the financial world. The securities and investment industry has given more money to Mr. Romney than any other industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and some of its leading figures have donated millions of dollars to Restore Our Future, the “super PAC” bolstering Mr. Romney’s campaign. Goldman employees are also the biggest source of donations to Free & Strong America PAC, a group Mr. Romney founded but no longer controls.

But Mr. Romney’s personal finances are particularly entwined with Goldman.

His federal financial disclosure statements show Mr. Romney and his wife, their blind trusts and their family foundation to be prodigious consumers of the bank’s services. In 2011, Mr. Romney’s blind trust and the couple’s retirement accounts held as much as $36.7 million in at least two dozen Goldman investment vehicles, earning as much as $3 million a year in income. Mrs. Romney’s trust had at least $10.2 million in Goldman funds — possibly much more — earning as much as $6.2 million.

Tax returns released by the campaign this week also highlighted some of the privileges Mr. Romney enjoyed as a friend of Goldman: In May 1999, a few months after he left Bain to run the Salt Lake City Olympics, Goldman allowed Mr. Romney to buy at least 7,000 Goldman shares during the firm’s lucrative initial public offering — a generous allotment even among Goldman clients, according to people with knowledge of the deal. When Mr. Romney’s trusts sold the shares in December 2010, a few months before he formed his presidential exploratory committee for the 2012 race, they returned a profit of $750,000.

A spokeswoman for Goldman declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Mr. Romney.

Investing with Goldman was not without risks: Like other Goldman clients, the Romneys invested money in a family of funds known as Whitehall, which placed highly leveraged bets on office buildings, casinos and hotels. Some Whitehall deals collapsed during the financial crisis, saddling Mr. Romney and its other investors with big losses.

And some of the attacks on Mr. Romney have overreached. While Mr. Gingrich charged on Thursday that his rival did business with a firm that “was explicitly foreclosing on Floridians,” that is not accurate: The family’s holdings include a Goldman fund that, like other investment funds, has invested partly in mortgage-backed securities. Goldman sold its mortgage servicing arm, Litton Loan Servicing, last year.

But other elements of Mr. Romney’s personal and business ties to Goldman may prove more controversial. Bain’s mid-1990s acquisition of Dade Behring, a medical device maker with factories in Florida, has become a totem of the economic upheaval that private equity can inflict. Goldman invested in the acquisition, which brought the bank $120 million and Bain $242 million — but led to the layoffs of hundreds of workers in Miami. Democrats hammered Mr. Romney over the deal this week.

When Mr. Romney was building Bain into one of the world’s premier private equity firms, Goldman’s bankers clamored for Bain business, and won assignments advising or financing an array of Bain deals, including Bain’s 1997 $800 million buyout of Sealy, the nation’s largest mattress company, which it later sold.

As Mr. Romney amassed his fortune, Goldman also offered up the services of an elite Boston-based team in the bank’s private wealth management unit. The relationship gave him access to Goldman’s exclusive investment funds, including private equity vehicles known as Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.

Mr. Romney is far from Goldman’s largest client — some investors have billions of dollars at the firm — but his political connections and founding role at Bain have elevated his importance there. His Goldman investments are handled by Jim Donovan, who has built one of the largest-producing businesses in Goldman’s private wealth management unit, managing several billion dollars for the firm’s individual clients.

Goldman gave Mr. Romney’s trusts access to the bank’s own exclusive investment funds and helped him execute an aggressive and complex tax-deferral strategy known as an “exchange fund” in 2002. (Since 2003, most of Mr. Romney’s money has been held in blind trusts, meaning that he no longer makes many of his own investment decisions.) According to tax returns released this week, the family’s three principal trusts earned more than $9 million from various Goldman Sachs investment vehicles in 2010.

Floyd Norris, Michael Barbaro and Kitty Bennett contributed reporting.

Republicans trip and liberals chuckle, but libertarians will laugh last

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Republicans trip and liberals chuckle, but libertarians will laugh last

John Kass

January 29, 2012

The economy is in the tank. Americans are hurting, out of work and underemployed. The housing market hasn't recovered. And a weakened President Barack Obama hopes for good news.

So why are Democratic operatives and their media cheerleaders laughing? Because the Republican presidential candidates are so darn amusing in the slapstick of this campaign.

There's nothing like watching politicians stumbling and bumbling, tripping on all those abandoned and forgotten principles, to help you forget that it'll be your turn one day.

And as Democrats laugh at all the hilarious Republican pratfalls, can they see their own party stubbing its toes a few years from now on their own abandoned ideals, such as the civil liberties that were once so important to so many liberals?

Right now, Democrats have the White House and they aim to stay in power. And many liberals who are concerned about civil liberties are guzzling the Kool-Aid, perhaps as desperately as their conservative counterparts guzzled it when former President George W. Bush was pushing big-government conservatism with a straight face.

Now the Republicans are presenting a carny show. They've sent in the clowns.

Newt Gingrich is the one big-government Republican who can really slap down those big-government Democrats. And he offers a highly articulate, sweeping, passionate, almost lyrical conservatism. But Newt has a problem: Political Tourette Syndrome. He shouts out what America needs:

Manned colonies on the moon!

As Newt remains the stranger in his strange land, Mitt Romney sees weakness and is ascendant in Florida. But Mitt has his own problems. Let's call them "Mitt's Funds in the Grand Cayman Islands" and "Mitt's Swiss bank accounts."

If a President Gingrich puts the 51st state on the moon, then the least a President Romney could do is conquer the Cayman Islands. They're only about 480 miles from Miami, there's a lot more cash, there's some good fishing and they're a lot cheaper to occupy than the moon.

At least conservative Rick Santorum seems to believe about half of what he says, which is a marked improvement over the studied sincerity of the other two, but not enough.

And libertarian Ron Paul?

"Well, I don't think we should go to the moon. I think we maybe should send some politicians up there," Paul quipped.

Gingrich and Santorum have done their jobs as status quo blocking backs, so Paul will never get the one-on-one confrontation he needed to defeat the corporatist Romney. Still, I think Paul will have a victory, not this year, but long term. And not personally, but through his ideas.

You already see it, in the energy level of young. They're turned on by libertarian ideas, by smaller government, by less taxes, and they don't want to fight any more wars. Many young people are also quite intrigued by a strange document, one that prompts snickering among establishment big-government Democrats and big-government Republicans.

You may have heard about this weird booklet.

We call it the Constitution.

Things are already changing. Only a few weeks ago, Paul was ridiculed as an "isolationist" for not wanting America to fight wars. But recently, there has been a subtle but significant shift in establishment rhetoric.

The word "isolationist" has been replaced. The new, almost officially approved term is "noninterventionist."

That's far less pejorative. And you'll see it used more often, an acknowledgment by the elites that the young people who do most of the fighting and the dying in American wars aren't inherently evil simply because they want to live.

That youth vote once belonged to President Obama. Years ago, he was the hope and change agent from Chicago's City Hall. But that seems like eons ago, back in the days when he cared about civil liberties.

When Bush was in the White House, Democratic liberals like Obama shrieked at the loss of civil liberties. Conservatives saw it happening, saw the federal muscle being used on Americans, but they drank the Kool-Aid, convincing themselves that there was some greater good.

Now they see their party has lost its way. Back then, the Democrats were out of power. They were loud critics of Bush and anyone who'd deny Americans their rights. These days, Democrats guzzle the Kool-Aid and Obama uses civil liberties to clean his shoes.

Last month he signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which would allow the military to jail and detain Americans without charges if they're suspected of consorting with terrorists. Think of that. American armed forces arresting and jailing — without charges — fellow U.S. citizens. To keep his civil liberties cred, Obama insists it won't come to this, but a former law professor should understand that if you give the government power, it will use it.

"You go down a slippery slope," liberal Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., told The Hill last week. "To not give people a hearing, to not give an American citizen the right to have his case heard in a court — I think that's one of our basic rights. Once we're starting to get rid of our basic rights, we're in real trouble."

But with so many Democrats laughing at the Republican circus, and all those glasses of Kool-Aid being raised, who can hear him?

jskass@tribune.com

Ron Paul: Right on TSA, Still Wrong for the Presidency

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Ron Paul: Right on TSA, Still Wrong for the Presidency

By Bob Bartelby | Yahoo! Contributor Network

COMMENTARY | I've made no bones about saying that Texas Congressman Ron Paul is nuttier than a chipmunk, but now and again, even a blind chipmunk stumbles on a nut. So it is in the case of Rep. Paul vs. the Transportation Security Agency.

During an interview on CNN on Sunday, Paul spoke about the TSA: "You know, when you look at some of these pictures of probing groin areas and breast areas and all this, and old women having to take their clothes off, if we as a people are so complacent that we can look at that and say 'Oh, that's OK. They're making us safe.' It doesn't make us safe."

Paul is right. It's absurd that you have to be at the airport, for example, in Los Angeles, while your plane is still refueling in Dallas because of the horrendous amount of time it takes to have a government official grope you, all so you can cram yourself into rows of seats with people free from the worry that you might blow up.

We also cram people into rows of seats in movie theaters, trains, buses, classrooms, stadiums and concert halls. And we don't even screen them, no less grope them. Planes are inherently no more dangerous. They merely move fast. Paul is right on the money.

Paul is right about a lot of things. He's right, for example, about the drug policy. According to the Los Angeles Times, he believes it should be left to the states. It's costing us too much money for too little gain. He's right.

He's also right on Israel. According to Reuters, Paul says Israel should look after itself. He's right, if for no other reason than it acts autonomously, against our efforts toward peace, but then still expects our unmitigated support. There's nothing in it for us.

Paul is right about a lot of things, but he's wrong for the presidency. Why? Quite simply, he has one of the worst records in Congress for the passage of his agenda. [ Worst record? If you ask me he has the best record in Congress hands down. Ron Paul ain't called Doctor No for nothing. ] The presidency is entirely about leadership, and almost nothing about ideas. He has some great ideas, but here's the catch: No one in government is following him, and they haven't for the duration of his lengthy legislative career.

Oppositional defiance is valuable, but it's not leadership. America needs a leader, and Paul's record proves he's not the guy for the job.

Newt Gingrich's thugs attack Ron Paul supporter

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‘Everyone step on his toes!’ Gingrich security harasses Ron Paul supporter: Scenes from the Florida primary

By Yahoo! News

SNIP I removed the first article

WINDERMERE, Fla.--Next time, Eddie Dillard won't wear flip-flops.

Dillard, a 29-year-old Ron Paul supporter from this suburb near Orlando, arrived to vote at his precinct at Winderemere Baptist Church early Tuesday morning. Pulling into the parking lot, Dillard noticed a man outside the polling place with a Gingrich sign. He decided to run home, slip into his "Ron Paul Rocks America" T-shirt, grab a "Ron Paul 2012" sign from his garage, and return to give his candidate some representation outside the precinct after he cast his vote.

Dillard found a quiet spot along a sidewalk lined with tiny American flags and held up his sign. Little did he know, Newt Gingrich had chosen that very spot to make his first Primary Day campaign stop.

When Gingrich's bus pulled up, Dillard stood silently holding his sign and watched the news-media horde swamp the candidate. Gingrich stepped down from the bus and made a beeline for Dillard. He stopped in front of Dillard and his sign and parked himself for a round of handshaking and pictures with voters. The placement couldn't have been worse. There was Gingrich, standing with his wife Callista at their first event of the day, and a giant Ron Paul sign floated inches from their crowns.

Noticing the awkward optics, Gingrich aides and security personnel swarmed Dillard, trying to intimidate him into moving. One of Gingrich's security agents stepped in front of him. When Dillard didn't budge, the agent lifted his heeled shoe over Dillard's bare foot and dug the back of it into his skin, twisting it side-to-side like he was stomping out a cigarette. Shocked, Dillard kept his ground and took a picture of the agent with his phone, which was quickly knocked out of his hand. Dillard slipped off his flip-flop to pick up the phone with his foot, and a Gingrich supporter kicked the sandal away.

"Don't kick me!" Dillard said to the man who knocked away his sandal. More members of Gingrich's security retinue approached, shoving their shoulders and chests in front of him.

"Just block him!" a Gingrich campaign aide said. "Everyone step on his toes!"

Gingrich supporters handed a "Newt 2012" yard sign up to the front to put in front of Dillard's Paul sign. The two signs, zipping back and forth inches from Gingrich's head, circled each other in the air like a fighter jets in a dogfight.

When the candidate finished taking pictures with voters, furious Gingrich aides grilled Dillard.

"If we did this to you, you guys would be furious," said an aide before stomping back toward the bus. "They have no class. No class."

As Gingrich pulled away, Dillard looked down at his foot. With the adrenaline pumping, he hadn't noticed the pain, but now it was starting to sink in. A bruise was forming, and there was a cut mark where the security agent had dug in his heel.

"That was really something," Dillard said afterwards. "My heart's racing. Not what I expected to happen today."

--Chris Moody, 12:01 p.m. ET

Ron Paul Heads to Nevada

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Ron Paul Heads to Nevada: Strategy Called 'Odd'

By Jason M. Volack | ABC News

While his GOP rivals duke it out in a bloody Florida primary on Tuesday, Ron Paul will continue stumping for votes in the caucus states that dominate the political calendar over the next week.

Paul does well in caucus states, where superior organization and passionate supporters play to his strengths and could allow the Texas congressman to pick up more delegates than Gingrich and Santorum combined this week.

Even Republican strategist Karl Rove admitted that strategy provides Paul the biggest advantage over the next week while speaking on Fox News Monday night.

"I think it's going to be a advantage of Ron Paul," Rove said on "On The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "He's been spending a lot of time on caucus states. His campaign manager announced this is going to be a big focus."

While Florida Republicans will hit the polls on Tuesday, Paul will be stumping in Colorado and then Nevada.

The Paul campaign said they are heavily focused on picking up Nevada's 34 delegates by turning out Hispanic and Mormon voters.

It's a strategy Eric Herzik, chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Nevada Reno, finds "odd."

"It's an odd strategy - Republican Latinos are not a big demographic group," Herzik told ABC News. "I don't see what the natural link is with these groups."

Most Hispanics don't vote Republican, and Romney has a lock on his fellow Mormons, said Herzik adding, "It's his vote to lose."

Despite that, Paul's message of limited government and individual liberties plays well in Nevada, which is a conservative anti-tax state but also has liberal pro-choice laws and the lowest average attendance of church in the nation, Herzik said.

Paul's campaign has been running television ads in Nevada since last summer, and senior aides add that they will continue to run them in the state through the Feb. 4 caucuses.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that Paul has spent $350,000 on air time in the state.

Flush with cash from a $13 million fundraising haul last quarter, Paul said he's staying in the race through the convention.

When asked on CNBC Monday night if he would accept a speaking role at the convention, Paul said he'll wait to see what the circumstances are.

"They are not going to give you a primetime spot if you talk about bringing back the gold standard and bringing the troops home," said Paul.

Ron Paul Is Placing Big Bets on Nevada

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Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul heads west next week to campaign in the early voting states of Colorado and Nevada.

Although Nevada has been virtually ignored by his rivals, Paul has opened two offices there and unveiled his centerpiece budget plan in Las Vegas last October.

Paul did well in Nevada four years ago, placing second to Mitt Romney, who successfully leveraged his Mormon faith to draw in a sizable number of Mormon voters.

The campaign is seeking to do better with Mormon voters by explaining Paul’s fidelity to the constitution.

“The nation is ready for a Mormon president,” said James Barcia, Ron Paul’s 2012 deputy press secretary. “But the question is, do you want someone who is constitutionally observant?”

Senior campaign aides also admit they are trying to court Hispanics, who represent a quarter of the state’s population, through direct mail in both English and Spanish highlighting the congressman’s medical background, faith, and family.

The campaign has been running television ads in the state since last summer and senior aides add that they will continue to run ads in the state through the Feb. 4 caucuses.

As in Iowa and New Hampshire, Paul’s message will be delivered by utilizing a small army of mostly college-aged volunteers to help with phone banking and canvassing.

Paul’s focus on Nevada is part of a comprehensive plan to pick up delegates in caucus states where TV advertising is cheaper and independents can vote.

If Paul comes up short on winning the nomination, Campaign Manager Jesse Benton says that they could use their allotted delegates as a bargaining chip to force the Republican Party to stick to its limited government platform.

Flush with cash from a $13 million fundraising haul last quarter, Paul said this morning he’s in the race through the convention.

“We’re going to stay in and see what comes of it,” Paul said to CNN.

Ron Paul's Vegas pitch: No taxes on tips

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Ron Paul's Vegas pitch: No taxes on tips

By Maria L. La Ganga

February 1, 2012, 4:47 p.m.

Reporting from Las Vegas— At a news conference where supporters out-numbered reporters 10 to 1, Rep. Ron Paul reiterated his plan to stop federal taxation of tips, a proposal that brought loud cheers in this tourism-dependent state, where nearly 20% of all workers rely on such income.

Speaking from a podium in an opulent Four Seasons Hotel ballroom, Paul said that Las Vegas "is a city that could benefit rather quickly from one little proposal: Make sure that the United States government does not tax tips at all."

The result, he said, would be less paperwork for businessmen and service providers, many of whom are "working on the margin," especially if they are reliant on such jobs for full-time employment. But even tip-reliant part-timers would benefit, he said, in a lengthy explanation that connected many of the ills he sees in the economy today.

The tip-earner, he said, "might be a student. Here we are, we have students struggling, they want to pay their way through college, and we want to encourage them. So we tax their tips, and then they come up short, and then we say, 'Oh, what we need to do is give you a loan and put you further into debt.' It makes no sense!"

Paul was asked whether it might be more economically sound just to raise the minimum wage – an idea that he bristled at as reducing the liberty that Americans crave.

"I don't like that idea at all," he responded bluntly. "I don't like to use force, and that's what you're doing. You're forcing a contract. The government is supposed to protect contracts, not dictate the contract. If they can manipulate the minimum wage laws, they can manipulate the maximum wage laws."

Paul unveiled the cornerstone of his economic plan in Las Vegas last October, proposing a one-year, trillion-dollar cut in federal spending that he said would allow him to balance the budget in his first term as president.

He said he would permit workers to dip into their 401(K) retirement accounts without penalty to start or invest in new businesses. He would reduce corporate and capital gains taxes and repeal what Republicans refer to as "Obamacare."

On Wednesday, he highlighted the elements of his economic plan that would most directly affect residents of Nevada. The Silver State has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the country, and newspapers regularly blare dire pronouncements about the moribund real estate market, like the Reno Gazette-Journal's recent headline: "Nevada leads US in foreclosure rate for fifth straight year."

Paul largely ignored his opponents in the race for the Republican presidential nomination and actually defended former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

He was asked to comment on the uproar over Romney's comment to CNN that "I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it...." And he was also asked what the federal government's responsibility to the poor is.

What the government should do to those with the very least, he said, is "maximize freedom, because that's where you get maximum production."

And he said that he hadn't heard the full comment by Romney.

"Sometimes we as politicians get taken out of context," he said. "Quite frankly, he is my political opponent, and we don't agree on a whole lot. But I also think not too long ago he was taken out of context that he liked to fire people, which was completely out of context. So until I look at that, I give him the benefit of the doubt."

On Thursday, Paul travels to Elko and Reno.

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Ron Paul gets a boost from brothel bunnies in Nevada caucuses

By David Horsey

February 2, 2012, 5:30 a.m.

The Moonlite Bunny Ranch is providing a hotbed of support for Ron Paul in the Nevada caucuses, thus proving there’s a thin line between libertarian and libertine.

The working girls at the notorious brothel near Carson City are, in their words, “pimpin’ for Paul.” One of the women, 25-year-old Cami Parker, told Times reporter Maria La Ganga that she likes Paul’s positions on individual liberties and states’ rights and drops 10% of her weekly earnings into a Paul campaign donation box in the brothel’s parlor.

In a state that thrives on gambling and allows zones of legal prostitution, Paul’s libertarian philosophy has wide appeal, although it’s a bit of a stretch to imagine the grandfatherly and mildly eccentric Texas congressman as a stud muffin for a group of sex trade entrepreneurs. Then again, given the horny ranch hands, frat boys, obese bikers, errant husbands and sad lonely hearts these women pretend to be aroused by every day, the authenticity and cerebral charm of Paul could be vastly more appealing.

Paul has certainly added zest to the sanctimonious drone of the Republican campaign. Especially in recent debates, the 76-year-old Paul has provided most of the rare moments of unscripted honesty and wit amid the memorized cheap shots and calculated displays of righteous anger.

Paul, who this week is celebrating 55 years of marriage to the same woman, doesn’t seem like the kind of fellow who’d be a customer at the Bunny Ranch. Still, he ought to stop by and thank the girls for their support. Hanging with prostitutes doesn’t seem any more compromising than sharing a stage with Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. At least there’s no pretense or obfuscation about how the bunnies earn their money.

Ron Paul speaks to Las Vegas Hispanic group

Ron Paul compared "how some people blame the illegal immigration problem for the nation's economic problems with how the Nazis used Jews as scapegoats"

"I don't want to live in a country where we have to have our papers" to conduct ordinary business, he said.

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Paul speaks to Las Vegas Hispanic group

By Richard Lake

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Posted: Feb. 1, 2012 | 9:38 a.m.

Republican presidential contender Ron Paul told an influential group of Hispanics on Wednesday that he favors an easier path for legal immigration to the United States.

"I just do not believe barbed wire fences and guns on our borders will solve any of our problems," the Texas congressman told a group of about 100 people Wednesday morning.

Paul, in town ahead of Saturday's Republican caucus, was the only Republican candidate to accept an invitation to speak before the Las Vegas group Hispanics in Politics. Paul, the candidate who has most actively reached out to Hispanic voters, finished second in Nevada to current Republican front-runner Mitt Romney in 2008. Romney is expected to finish first again, but Paul has made it clear he intends to do well here.

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, plans to reach out to several dozen invited Hispanic business leaders on Thursday at Mundo Restaurant in Las Vegas, his campaign confirmed.

Paul spoke in detail about immigration policy, saying he favored legal immigration, though he did not like a lot about so-called amnesty programs that would allow people who have been in this country illegally to gain citizenship. He said that would be rewarding lawbreakers.

He said there is too much emotion involved in the immigration issue, comparing how some people blame the illegal immigration problem for the nation's economic problems with how the Nazis used Jews as scapegoats in the buildup to World War II.

He also said the nation "overreacted" to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, as far as immigration goes, and that there is too much red tape for immigrants and others to contend with. He does not favor issuing national identification cards, either, he said.

"I don't want to live in a country where we have to have our papers" to conduct ordinary business, he said.

Simply deporting immigrants who are not here legally is no solution, Paul said. He said he has seen families separated by such actions, and that it is not good policy to send someone to their country of origin if they have been here most of their lives. It would also be a logistical nightmare to deport all illegal immigrants, he said.

"That makes no sense at all to do that," Paul told the crowd.

He said the nation should instead make it easier for people to immigrate here legally. Most immigrants, he said, come here because they believe in the American dream.

He said everybody wants the same thing, no matter what group they belong to: freedom.

"That should bring us all together," he said.

Paul, who spoke for about a half hour Wednesday and answered a few questions afterward, has focused on gaining supporters among diverse groups: Hispanics, veterans, young voters and Mormons, who have previously backed their fellow church-goer Romney.

Michael G. McDonald, 53, said he was supporting Paul because he was the only candidate in either party who is honest about revamping the country's monetary policy.

"He's the only alternative we have," said McDonald, who attended Wednesday's event and plans to participate in Saturday's caucuses.

He said that if Paul does not gain the Republican nomination, he will vote the way he has been voting for a decade: For "none of these candidates," an option unique to Nevadans.

Edwin Aguilar, 22, attended the event, too. He said he is not yet a citizen, so he cannot vote. But he said he is here legally from El Salvador, and he wants to spread the word about Paul.

"I believe Ron Paul's message is universal," Aguilar said. "It appeals to anybody from any background. Peace, liberty, freedom."

Paul emphasizes returning the country's currency to the gold standard, dramatically reducing government spending and regulations, and emphasizing individual rights over government policy. He tends to appeal to libertarian-minded Nevadans.

Marlene Simpson, 50, said she would support Paul in Saturday's caucus. She likes that he wants to focus on domestic policy, rather than the goings on around the world.

Paul, as he often does, railed against the response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, particularly the invasion of Iraq and the Patriot Act.

He said that if elected, he would immediately bring the troops home.

"We've spent too much time meddling in the affairs of other nations," he said. "I think we ought to stop all that."

Review-Journal reporter Laura Myers contributed to this report. Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.

Wearing Guns, and Support for Ron Paul, on Their Hips

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Wearing Guns, and Support for Ron Paul, on Their Hips

Isaac Brekken for The New York Times

PAHRUMP, Nev. — On rare occasions, when a brave — or foolish — local official here proposes banning firearms from government buildings or meetings, he is met with howls of protests by sidearm-wearing residents who pack public hearings. Shocked tourists on the way to Death Valley periodically call the local sheriff’s office to report someone wearing a pistol in plain view. That is their right, they are told.

This is a town — unincorporated, to be sure — where many folks have little need for much government, whether manifested by permits, stop signs, gun regulations or anything that would threaten Pahrump’s brothels. That goes for surrounding Nye County as well, which is more than twice the size of New Jersey but is home to only 44,000 residents, mostly in Pahrump.

This is the heart of Ron Paul country, the one county in Nevada that the 76-year-old congressman from Texas carried in the 2008 Republican caucuses, and a place that wears its libertarianism proudly.

It is also a place where many people come to be left alone. “There are a lot of people who hide in Pahrump,” said Carl England Jr., who, as pastor of a Baptist church here and also proprietor of a local septic business, knows a lot about his neighbors.

Many people here have owned guns — even some, like Jerry Neese, who are scared of them — not necessarily for concerns about safety but to make a statement about living in a free country. “People believe in the rights they have, and want to show they believe in them,” said Bonnie White, who owns Emmalee’s Guns and Emporium (named for her granddaughter) and sells 500 guns a year. “People will fight for their rights here.”

Mr. Neese and his wife, Mary, liked their two .357 Magnums but had to sell them when they lost their business. Ms. Neese once shot a burglar as he came after Mr. Neese with a large screwdriver, and she fears her husband might otherwise have been killed.

Nevertheless, Mr. Neese says the love of firearms can go too far, especially allowing people to wear them out in the open just about anywhere. “That makes people nervous,” he said. “If I see someone with a gun on their hip, and I had a gun, it would make me want to put my hands on my gun.”

Likewise, support for Mr. Paul is far from universal: he won 34 percent of the vote in Nye County the last time, barely edging out Mitt Romney, though there was some dispute over the final tally. But even among undecideds like Ms. White, Mr. Paul’s message about getting government out of people’s lives strikes a chord here as in few other places.

“There are many libertarians out there, and many of them came from urban areas and sought relative isolation. And they found it,” said Robert List, a former Nevada governor and the state’s Republican national committeeman, referring to Nye County. “They don’t come to Las Vegas unless they have to.”

Paul campaign officials hope to capitalize on that mistrust of government at Saturday’s caucuses, and they were planning a big rally in Pahrump on Friday as one of Mr. Paul’s last stops.

“It’s a mentality, ‘Leave me alone, let me do my thing, government, keep out of my business,’ ” said Carl Bunce, Mr. Paul’s Nevada campaign chairman. “They like as little government as possible in their lives, and Ron Paul is obviously the only candidate talking about reducing the size of federal government, so it’s an instant tie in their minds to support that candidate.”

Large blue Ron Paul signs with red borders are ubiquitous in Pahrump, mainly because of Sam Jones, one of Mr. Paul’s most fervent backers here. He says 83 of the signs have been put up around the town, with the materials paid for by about two dozen Paul supporters.

On this Thursday, Mr. Jones was keeping busy with two items: One was helping with preparations for Mr. Paul’s campaign stop the next day. The other was attending a court hearing to answer charges he faced stemming from a confrontation with sheriff’s deputies in which he was subdued with a Taser.

He said he had been reaching for a small copy of the Constitution that he keeps with him; the deputies said he appeared to be going for the other thing he carries on his person: his .45-caliber pistol, according to an account of his arrest in the local paper.

Mr. Jones has been one of the fiercest critics of efforts to ban firearms at public meetings. “The Constitution doesn’t say we have the right to bear arms everywhere, except the Pahrump, Nev., courthouse,” he said, sitting on a couch outside his home with his 1-year-old dog, Precious.

“This country is becoming a police state,” he added. “If Ron Paul doesn’t get elected, we’re history.”

Jobs report dominates agenda for all but Ron Paul

At lasts Ron Paul isn't going to shovel the BS and claim the President or for that matter the government can create jobs.

Government only reshuffle the wealth around by stealing from one person and giving the stolen loot to another person.

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Jobs report dominates agenda for all but Ron Paul

By Maria L. La Ganga

February 3, 2012, 3:45 p.m.

Reporting from Pahrump, Nev.— It is hard to believe that anyone who follows politics could possibly need more evidence that Ron Paul isn't like the rest of Washington.

But just in case his basic platform -- bring back the gold standard, crush the Federal Reserve system, get all of our troops back home tomorrow and end the war on drugs -- isn't enough, all you need to do is listen to him on the campaign trail when the Department of Labor releases a jobs report.

Like today. The job market strengthened. Employers hired more workers than expected. And GOP front-runner Mitt Romney lost no time slamming President Obama because the good news just wasn't good enough.

"We welcome the fact that jobs were created and unemployment declined," Romney said in a rapid-fire press release shortly after the jobs numbers were released. "Unfortunately, these numbers cannot hide the fact that President Obama's policies have prevented a true economic recovery."

In a broadcast interview, Newt Gingrich derided the positive jobs report as "irrelevant" and predicted that Obama was "not going to be able to go to the public and say, 'Look how successful I've been.' The most he'll be able to say is, 'I'm less destructive than I was a year ago.'"

Paul's response? Silence, even though he's campaigning in beleaguered Nevada, the state with the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates in America.

Oh, he talked, for a good 25 minutes in front of an enthusiastic audience here in rural Nye County, the only county in all of Nevada that he won back in 2008. He just didn't talk about the news of the day. Or pay any heed to his competitors in the race for the White House. Or give the president more than passing mention.

"I quite frequently criticize the administration," he insisted at a noontime rally in Pahrump, a low-slung, sand-colored town of 36,000 or so. "But I also criticize many administrations going back a good many years. This mess didn't come on overnight. It didn't come up just over the last three years.

"It's come up because we as a country have lost our total conviction that we ought to have only people represent us in Washington who have actually read the Constitution, believe in it and voted that way."

There are times, in fact, that Paul sounds like he's actually running against Woodrow Wilson, who became president in 1913 – the beginning of the end in Paul's worldview.

"There's a couple things in 1913," Paul told about 200 supporters gathered in a repurposed roller-skating rink. "The first thing to introduce the age of big government was this rejection of the founders' notion that we shouldn't have an income tax. I'd like to restore that because we shouldn't need an income tax.

"Also in that same fateful year, we had the introduction of the notion that government should institute central banking and allow the central bank to print money when the government ran out of money," Paul said, sounding even more professorial than usual. "And this has led to our economic problems. This has led to the size of our government. It has led to a method of paying for the things we do overseas that we shouldn't be doing."

Brian Becker, 36, is a fan of Paul for many reasons, not the least of which is the 12-term congressman's belief that the United States should return to the gold standard.

"Our currency used to be backed by gold and silver," said the much-tattooed Becker, as he waited for the candidate to arrive. "Now it's not backed by anything. It's just paper promises."

Becker also supports the grandfather of 18 because of Paul's belief in individual liberties. Like the right to bear arms. Strapped to Becker's belt was a loaded Sig Sauer P229 handgun, and he wasn't the only man in the audience packing heat on this bright afternoon.

Becker and his friend Frank Smith, 38, both work at Pahrump's Ammo Supply Warehouse, and both of their pistols were loaded.

"You wouldn't want to wear one unloaded," Becker said. "From a practical standpoint, you have it, you're allowed to use it, you never know when you'll need it."

The libertarian-leaning candidate's next stop? A meet-and-greet with Gun Owners for Ron Paul at American Shooters in Las Vegas.

Really.

Ron Paul supporter who had foot broken by Gingrich thugs sues

Ron Paul supporter files lawsuit against Gingrich campaign for broken foot at Florida precinct

By Chris Moody | The Ticket

A Ron Paul supporter who left his polling precinct near Orlando with a broken foot Tuesday after an altercation with Newt Gingrich's private security officers has filed a lawsuit against the campaign and Patriot Group International, Gingrich's security firm.

The complaint, filed on Feb. 3 in a U.S. district court , seeks damages of more than $75,000, and alleges battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent hiring on part of the campaign.

Dillard told Yahoo News that his attorney, Andrew Bennett Spark, was waiving attorney fees.

The incident occurred Tuesday at a polling station at First Baptist Church Windermere, where Gingrich was scheduled to make a quick morning stop to greet supporters. Dillard, a Ron Paul supporter who lives nearby, was present with a Paul sign when Gingrich arrived, and he says he did not know the candidate planned to stop there.

When Gingrich's campaign bus arrived, Gingrich walked toward Dillard, said hello, and turned to shake hands with voters. Dillard held the Paul sign behind Gingrich. Members of the candidate's private security warned Dillard that he should leave. When Dillard refused, they attempted to block him, and one stomped on his foot--on purpose, Dillard, who was wearing flip-flop sandals at the time, says.

After the incident, Dillard had a bruise on the top of his foot and later visited a doctor, who diagnosed him with a fracture.

A spokesman for Paul's presidential campaign called on Gingrich this week to apologize and to pay for Dillard's hospital bills.

Spark told Yahoo News that a phone call to the Gingrich campaign Friday had not yet been returned.

Ron Paul loses in Nevada

The good news is he got almost 20% of the vote

I guess the bad news is Ron Paul lost in Nevada.

The good news is Ron Paul got almost 20 percent of the vote, which I hope means many Americans are open to Ron Paul's Libertarian ideas, or even the idea that the government must obey the Constitution.

And of course that is despite the high percentage of Mormon votes in Nevada most of which voted for fellow Mormon Mitt Romney

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Mitt Romney wins overwhelming victory in Nevada caucuses

By Dan Balz, Published: February 4

LAS VEGAS — Mitt Romney secured an overwhelming victory in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, giving the former Massachusetts governor his second consecutive win of the year as he tightened his claim to dominant front-runner status in what had been a turbulent Republican presidential race.

After his easy victory in Florida on Tuesday, Romney’s win in Nevada, where he also emerged on top four years ago, will provide additional momentum heading to Tuesday’s caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota and set him up for more significant primaries in Michigan and Arizona at the end of the month. The outcome will increase pressure on his rivals to demonstrate how and where they plan to stop him, if they can.

Turnout was far below that of the primaries in Florida, South Carolina or New Hampshire and less than in Iowa’s caucuses.

Romney was far ahead of his closest rivals. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) were battling for second place. Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum was running fourth. Counting in Clark County was extremely slow late Saturday, delaying final results.

Addressing cheering supporters in Las Vegas, Romney largely ignored his opponents and focused on President Obama’s handling of the economy. “America needs a president who can fix the economy because he understands the economy,” he said. “I do and I will. This president began his presidency by apologizing for America. He should now be apologizing to America.”

As Romney celebrated his third victory in five contests, his rivals vowed to continue fighting. Gingrich spoke to reporters, forgoing the traditional post-election rally. “We will continue the campaign all the way to Tampa,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to withdraw.” Then, in an extraordinary performance, Gingrich spent much of the rest of his news conference denouncing Romney in harsh and personal terms, signaling a rough ride ahead for the party.

Santorum, meanwhile, said Saturday night that he would make the strongest nominee against Obama. “This race is a long, long way from being over,” he told CNN, adding, “Eventually this race will come to us.”

But the calendar provides those chasing Romney with few opportunities for victory in coming weeks. Gingrich and Santorum each would like to take on Romney without the other draining off conservative votes, but neither has shown any interest in bowing to the other. Paul demonstrated again in Nevada that he can do well in caucus states with limited turnout but has yet to show real strength in a big state.

The first weeks of the Republican race have played out at the pace of a sprint. But the primary-caucus calendar slows to a walk in February, before resuming with a flurry of contests March 6, this year’s Super Tuesday.

Romney is favored in Colorado on Tuesday, whereas Minnesota is less predictable. Maine caucuses began Saturday but will not be completed for a week. Both Arizona and Michigan are regarded as Romney territory at this point. Gingrich’s first real opportunities won’t arrive until Super Tuesday.

Romney will use the lull in the calendar in part to replenish his campaign war chest. But he has political needs, as well, despite his commanding position in the race for the nomination. He still suffers from lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy, especially among the most conservative of Republicans. Beginning to win over those voters and consolidating the party will be his most important objectives.

At the same time, Romney plans to use February to flesh out some of his policy positions. His image has been hurt by a month of attacks from Gingrich, a super PAC backing the former speaker and by the Democrats. They have focused on his work at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded, which became the source of his personal fortune.

Verbal miscues by the candidate have contributed to questions about just whom he stands for and whom his policies would help. Romney earlier laid out a detailed economic plan, but some Republicans have said he needs something simpler and bolder to draw clearer distinctions with Obama and excite his party.

As Romney deals with those problems, his rivals will continue to look for any way possible to try to consolidate whatever anti-Romney forces exist and keep the race going as long as possible. Despite Romney’s strong position, it will take him months to accumulate enough delegates to claim the nomination.

Paul told CNN that Romney was always a prohibitive favorite in Nevada. “I think that everybody does recognize that the Mormon vote is significant,” he said. He added that he is beginning to accumulate delegates and said that even if he wanted to drop out, “there would be a strong rebellion with my friends.”

Entrance polls showed that Mormons accounted for about a quarter of the caucus electorate, and Romney — who is Mormon — won about nine in 10 of those voters.

Those entrance polls also showed that the economy was the dominant issue for caucus attendees, not surprising in a state with an unemployment rate of 12.6 percent and one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. At the same time, a strong plurality of voters said the most important quality they were looking for in a candidate was someone who could defeat the president in November. Romney won overwhelmingly with both groups.

In contrast to some previous states, Romney won among the most conservative voters in Nevada as well as among those who strongly support the tea party movement. Among those who said they were looking for a true conservative as their nominee, Romney ran fourth, but they accounted for less than one in five caucus attendees.

On a weekend when the Super Bowl drew thousands of tourists and gamblers to the bright lights and the casinos of the Las Vegas Strip, thousands of Nevada residents turned out in more prosaic venues — schools, fire stations, community centers and churches — to cast votes in the fifth contest of the Republican nomination battle.

The voting came after a relatively quiet four-day campaign among the four remaining candidates. The campaign here had only a few of the rhetorical fireworks that marked earlier contests and captured far less voter attention. Much of that had to do with the fact that Romney was the overwhelming favorite here, having won the caucuses four years ago with 51 percent of the vote.

The publicity highlight of Romney’s four-day campaign in Nevada came Thursday when he was endorsed by billionaire Donald Trump, at an event at Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas. Though the value of that endorsement was questionable, Trump choreographed it for maximum attention.

The Trump endorsement came on a day when Romney was trying to repair the damage from a statement he made the morning after the Florida primary in which he suggested that he was not concerned about the plight of the poor. Romney had said much the same in earlier settings but more deftly. He eventually said he had misspoken, though it took a full day for him to do so.

He said that what he was trying to say was that there are programs to help the poor and that he would see to it that they work but that he was particularly worried about middle-class Americans who have been hit hard by the recession and for whom there is no safety net.

None of his rivals was able to take advantage of the misstep, though Gingrich tried. At two events Friday, he accused Romney of embracing a government safety net as an effective way to fight poverty. “It isn’t a safety net — it’s a spider web,” he said, adding that such programs create dependency.

Romney was aided this week by the fact that Gingrich, who has been trying to make the GOP race a two-person contest, was beset by internal disorganization as he tried to regroup from his Florida defeat. Gingrich still appeared angry over the attacks Romney and a super PAC leveled at him in Florida. In an interview Friday on CNN he described those tactics as “reprehensible . . . dishonest . . . shameful.”

At an event Friday night at the International Church of Las Vegas, he said, “I am ashamed of the negativity and dishonesty of this campaign.” Gingrich was trying to convince donors and supporters that he has a viable path for winning the nomination.

The other two candidates, Paul and Santorum, promise to keep going no matter the results. Paul, who finished fourth in South Carolina and Florida, had a more elaborate grass-roots organization in Nevada than Gingrich and was hoping to leverage that into a second-place finish.

Santorum pledged to keep fighting, saying that he should be the conservative alternative to Romney rather than Gingrich. In addition to the caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, he pointed to the non-binding contest in Missouri, where Gingrich is not on the ballot.

As Nevadans were voting, the candidates campaigned elsewhere. Paul was in Minnesota, Santorum and Romney in Colorado.

Romney flew from Las Vegas to Colorado Springs for a rally before returning to celebrate. He said he was delighted at the jobs report Friday that showed unemployment down to 8.3 percent. But he said Obama doesn’t deserve praise for the improvement.

“He’s celebrating that it’s at 8.3,” Romney said at an appearance at a metal fabricating factory. “That’s still above the emergency line of 8 percent. And, by the way, he doesn’t get credit for things getting better. I’m delighted things are getting better. But the people who deserve credit for making things better are people like Tom [owner of the metal fabrication factory] who build a place like this and employ people in this great state.”

Virtually all caucuses were finished by mid-afternoon, Nevada time. But in Clark County, which includes the population center of Las Vegas, one caucus was scheduled to begin after sundown to give Orthodox Jews an opportunity to participate. The late opening and slow counting of that caucus delayed the final results from the other caucuses in the county.

Staff writers Amy Gardner and Philip Rucker contributed to this report.

Even if Ron Paul loses the Libertarian movement wins

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Ron Paul: 'Hard to Say' When He Will Win A GOP Caucus or Primary

By George Stephanopoulos | ABC OTUS News

Coming off of a back-of-the-pack finish in the Nevada caucus Saturday night, Ron Paul said Sunday morning that it is "hard to say exactly when" he expects score a victory in an upcoming caucus or primary.

"Of course you set [the bar] for victory, but you have to live in the real world," Paul told me on "This Week". "But we have three or four caucus states that we believe our numbers are doing pretty good and we have to wait and see and keep doing exactly what we're doing."

Paul, who is the only 2012 GOP presidential candidate who has not won a primary or caucus, said despite his losing record, he has already achieved his goal igniting a "big change in this country."

"There is an intellectual revolution going on with the young people," Paul said. "It has not been translated into an absolute political change, but, believe me, there is an intellectual revolution going on and that has to come first before we see big political changes."

The Texas congressman criticized his GOP rivals, particularly frontrunner and Nevada Caucus winner Mitt Romney, for having no "firm convictions." Paul said Romney's economic positions were "flawed," but that the former Massachusetts governor is apt to change his tune if it means capturing some of Paul's supporters.

"I think Mitt can change his mind," Paul said. "He's changed his mind in the past. He's going to change his mind if there's a political benefit to it."

With 71 percent of the votes tallied, Paul sits at third in the Nevada Caucus, about 1,000 votes behind Newt Gingrich, and falling behind his second place finish in 2008.

Paul said his third-place finish in Nevada was a "disappointment," but that the poor showing would not put an end to his campaign.

"On the positive side, we will get a bloc of votes. We will still get some delegates," he said. "And we still will pursue, you know, our plan to go into the caucus states."

Colorado and Minnesota are the next states to hold their GOP caucuses, both of which go to the polls on Tuesday.

Ron Paul’s Flinty Worldview Was Forged in Early Family Life

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Ron Paul’s Flinty Worldview Was Forged in Early Family Life

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: February 5, 2012

His parents married two days before the crash of 1929. He was reared on nightmarish stories of currency that proved worthless, told by relatives whose patriarch had fled Germany in the dark of night when his debts were about to ruin him.

Hard times, and fear of worse, were constants in Ron Paul’s boyhood home. His father and mother worked tirelessly running a small dairy, and young Ron showed the same drive — delivering The Pittsburgh Press, mowing lawns, scooping ice cream as a soda jerk. He also embraced their politics, an instinctive conservatism that viewed Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman as villains and blamed Democrats for getting America into wars.

As a young doctor in training, dissecting cadavers or practicing surgery on dogs, he would tell all who would listen about how the country was headed down the wrong path, about the urgency of a strict gold standard and about the dangers of allowing government too much power over people’s lives.

“Once that got ingrained, that became his religion,” said his brother Jerrold, a minister and a psychotherapist. “He says he preaches the ‘gospel of freedom’ — that’s the money quote. Politics became his crusade.”

But for the silver hair, the baggy eyes and the grandchildren, the 76-year-old man running for president today — carrying the torch for a gold-based currency, agitating to “end the Fed,” warning of threats to personal freedom and prophesying imminent economic collapse — is almost indistinguishable from the Ron Paul of half a century ago.

Supporters and detractors often marvel at his consistency since entering politics in 1974, citing it as evidence of either levelheadedness or lunacy. It contrasts sharply with some of the rivals he is trailing in the Republican primaries, including Mitt Romney, who is often accused of ideological flip-flopping.

While the Austrian economists who deeply influenced Mr. Paul have gone in and out of fashion among conservatives, his own fidelity to them has never wavered. Even his investment portfolio, nearly two-thirds of which is in gold and precious-metal stocks, shows the same commitment to principle — not to mention preparation for a financial catastrophe.

Now, with a solid third-place showing in Nevada and ardent grass-roots support expected to help him in caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, Mr. Paul is likely to command greater attention for his inimitable mix of doom-saying and doses of folksy, homespun humor. But to Mr. Paul, his candidacy is just another step in a lifelong quest “to find the plain truth of things.”

“I like to think that’s what I do,” he said in an interview. “Imperfectly — but most people don’t even care. Do you listen to these debates? Are they seeking the plain truth of things? I think that’s why people sense I’m somewhat different.”

What jumps out most from interviews with Mr. Paul and scores of his relatives, friends and colleagues is not only how different his ideas are, but also how early in life he developed his worldview — one that appears to have guided nearly every political and financial move he has made ever since.

Hard Times, Hard Work

Social Security, a pillar of the New Deal, was signed into law a week before Ronald Ernest Paul was born in 1935. But his family believed Roosevelt’s economic policies were a threat to capitalism and an affront to the values of hard work and private charity.

From a young age, Ron, the third of five, and his four brothers earned pennies picking raspberries that their grandfather, a farmer, sold in Pittsburgh, and plucking dirty milk bottles from the crates of empties in their basement. Yet they saw their parents let customers short on cash slide on paying their bills for months at a time.

“I think Ron reflects that,” Jerrold Paul said. “He’s fiscally frugal, but he’s also a generous guy.”

Raising five sons born in the space of seven years, Howard and Margaret Paul worked every day but Christmas, spoke English at home but swore at their sons in German and were the last in the neighborhood to buy a TV set.

“We were poor, but we didn’t know it,” said David Paul, a brother who, like Jerrold, is a Lutheran minister (the other two brothers are a retired math professor and an accountant).

Mr. Paul, a Texas Republican, greeting supporters at the Iowa straw poll last August. “People sense I'm somewhat different,” he said.

The boys were free to do what they wanted, up to a point. When Billy Graham brought his crusade to downtown Pittsburgh, Ron, a teenager, headed off to the revival on his own. But when he shot a BB gun at a neighbor’s passing car, he lost the gun for good.

His parents did not impose their politics on their sons. But family lore about hyperinflation, property as the safest investment and a great-grandfather’s escape from crushing debt in 19th-century Germany all made an impression. As did a grade-school janitor who hired young Ron to paint the walls and ranted about bankers being “the source of our problems,” as Mr. Paul recalled in one of his books.

Wartime rationing also left a mark. When he saw a local butcher shop ignoring the rules on Saturdays and selling “all the meat you wanted, at a price,” Mr. Paul wrote, it was “my first real-life experience in the free market solving problems generated by government mischief.”

A high school athlete — he wrestled opponents 20 pounds heavier and won the Pennsylvania championship in the 220-yard dash — he was offered a full athletic scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, even after an injury and crude surgery severely damaged his knee. But he turned down the offer, saying it would be wrong to accept given his doubts that he could compete. In private, he despaired of ever racing again — and railed against a God who, as he told Jerrold, “would give me something and then take it away.”

He went off instead to Gettysburg College, where he paid his way washing dishes and managing a campus coffee shop, the Bullet Hole. His brothers in Lambda Chi Alpha took note of his rectitude. “You’d go out for a beer, and he’d have a Coke,” said James Fuller, a classmate. “He never missed church. He was a very straight shooter.”

“Peer pressure wasn’t going to change him,” said Samuel Blackwell, another classmate. The same went for his politics. Mr. Fuller said he pegged Mr. Paul as “to the right of Attila the Hun.” Others said he was so opinionated that the fraternity’s cook — a local farmer and a liberal Democrat — took delight in goading him into political arguments.

Mr. Paul was pre-med, but he gravitated to economics and political science classes, though he said his college instructors mainly caused him to doubt his own instincts. “They were always trying to beat them out of me,” he said.

By the time he graduated, Mr. Paul was sprinting again (he is tied for fifth on Gettysburg’s all-time list in two sprint events) and had married Carol Wells, who had asked him to escort her to her 16th birthday party. He had never dated anyone else.

Life-Changing Books

At the Duke School of Medicine, the Pauls had the first two of their five children. But even with the demands of medical school and a family, Mr. Paul found time to plow through “Atlas Shrugged” and “Doctor Zhivago,” new best sellers that would inspire generations of conservatives and libertarians.

If the Ron Paul who had arrived at Gettysburg was a bundle of visceral conservative political impulses in search of an intellectual framework, he found it at Duke through his extracurricular reading.

It was “The Road to Serfdom” by Friedrich Hayek that became the ur-text of Mr. Paul’s emerging ideology, introducing him to Austrian economics and its Manichaean choice between laissez-faire capitalism and a government-run economy destined for disaster. (Mainstream economists have long dismissed the Austrian school, but it retains a devoted following among libertarians and some conservatives.)

On his visits home, his brothers noticed, Mr. Paul began sharing what he was learning. His father, a man with an eighth-grade education and a steel handshake, and his mother, who dreamed of teaching but never attended college, beamed with approval. “My parents would say, ‘He really articulates what we think,’ ” Jerrold Paul remembered. “What was instinctive for them became intellectual for him.”

Fellow medical students, too, still remember his exhortations about the gold standard and the encroaching welfare state. “He believed in not too much federal government,” said Siegfried Smith, a classmate. “And this was a time when we didn’t have a lot.”

Jerrold Paul, who said he broke with his brother politically over Ron’s early advocacy for Barry M. Goldwater, recalled that Ron — who today opposes foreign aid and military intervention of almost any kind — also started adopting nationalist, or at least noninternationalist, views. When Jerrold announced plans to move to Egypt as a missionary in 1959, he said, Ron urged him to reconsider, saying, “We need people in this country.”

The young Dr. Paul worked as an intern in Detroit before being drafted as an Air Force flight surgeon around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. After two years based in San Antonio, where he befriended two doctors who regularly invested in silver dollars, he returned to Pittsburgh for a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Magee-Womens Hospital.

Abortion was still illegal, but, increasingly, legal exceptions were being made for psychiatric reasons. Mr. Paul traces his opposition to the procedure to the time when he wandered into an operating room there and saw a pregnancy terminated by Caesarean section, with a 2-pound fetus, delivered alive, left in a corner to try to breathe, try to cry, and die.

Other co-workers from that time, however, recalled that women butchered by back-alley abortionists were frequent patients; some did not survive. Mr. Paul said he never came across such a patient in his three years.

Despite long hours and heavy demands, Mr. Paul never lacked the energy to preach, recalled Dr. Sheldon Weinstein, a fellow obstetrics and gynecology trainee.

“He was always talking about how much gold there was in Fort Knox, how we shouldn’t be in Vietnam,” Dr. Weinstein said. “For me, it was novel — he was an oddball. He was worried about the monetary system; I didn’t have any pennies, let alone dollars.”

Planning for the Worst

Dr. Weinstein and other residents recalled whispering that Mr. Paul must be a member of the John Birch Society, the ultraconservative group whose views on the monetary system, economics and foreign policy Mr. Paul has described as much like his own.

Mr. Paul denies ever belonging to the group, though he was listed as a subscriber to its magazine, American Opinion, according to Birch records in Brown University’s archives. And when he planned his first run for office in 1974, he has said, the first person he called for advice was Larry McDonald, a right-wing congressman who was later president of the group. Mr. Paul and the John Birch Society are also 50-50 co-owners of a 3.8-acre property in Sweeny, Tex., that was bequeathed to them by a constituent of the congressman who died in 2010; Mr. Paul’s campaign said it was surprised by the gift, and the group said the property would be sold off. In the interview, Mr. Paul said he parted ways with the John Birch Society over its emphasis on conspiracy theories — “that 12 or 15 people for hundreds of years get together and plan the world.”

But he hastened to say that conservatives’ rejection of the society, as far back as the 1960s, was wrong. “I’ve known these people, and I saw them as mostly strict constitutionalists,” he said. “To turn that into something radical and mean is not fair.”

Mr. Paul jumped at the chance to return to Texas in 1968 after learning of an obstetrician who was retiring in an area with no competition. The leap paid off. Before long, he had amassed a farm outside town, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a beach house and other real estate investments.

In 1971, however, President Richard M. Nixon’s abandonment of the gold standard propelled Mr. Paul to buy gold for the first time — and to embark on a new career. He saw it as a “declaration of bankruptcy for our country,” he later wrote.

The so-called Nixon Shock was an unimaginably grave threat to ultraconservatives, said Chip Berlet, a historian of the ultra-right wing. Many “saw it as a sign that a conspiracy had penetrated the Republican Party — as subversion from within,” he said.

Mr. Paul ran for Congress in 1974 and lost, then won a special election in 1976. To keep up his medical practice, he took on a young partner, Jack Pruett.

In their first meeting, Dr. Paul laid down two conditions: They would perform no elective abortions, and they would not participate in Medicare or Medicaid. They treated poor women at a discount or free, Dr. Pruett said, sometimes receiving vegetables or eggs instead of cash.

But Mr. Paul’s mind remained focused elsewhere. His medical office was lined with economics textbooks, Dr. Pruett recalled. And when they closed the books one year and found that they had $60,000 left over to split, Mr. Paul proposed that they invest in gold coins.

“I still have my Krugerrands,” Dr. Pruett said. “We paid $132 apiece. They’re worth about $2,000 today.”

Mr. Paul continues to invest according to his principles, and he has outperformed the stock market. From 2001 to 2011, his holdings in gold, silver, mining companies and other bets on an economic collapse more than doubled in value, an analysis of his Congressional disclosures suggests, to between $1.6 million and $3.5 million. His entire portfolio is now worth between $2.4 million and $5.4 million.

He also continues to maintain his medical license, for the same apocalyptic reason that he urges young people to learn a trade. “That is the ultimate protection,” he said, even safer than stockpiling gold. “Even if you have to live in a totalitarian society, somebody’s going to want your skills.”

Paul says GOP result 'opens up the door'

Source

Paul says GOP result 'opens up the door'

Associated PressBy BRIAN BAKST

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. (AP) — Republican Ron Paul said front-runner Mitt Romney's inability to brush back challenges in votes Tuesday "opens up the door" to him and others looking to deny the former Massachusetts governor the party's presidential nomination.

The Texas congressman was headed for a solid second-place in Minnesota's caucuses, which were won by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Santorum also won Missouri and was in the hunt for a victory in Colorado's caucuses.

"I'm a little surprised. I thought Romney would have some of this automatic carryover," Paul told The Associated. "It certainly doesn't hurt us."

Paul was on course to capture more than a quarter of Minnesota's vote. He was a distant third in Missouri's non-binding primary and far back in Colorado.

Paul said of the night's results, "I think it splits the vote and sort of opens up the door to us."

Romney won Minnesota convincingly in his 2008 bid for the GOP nomination. He didn't put much personal effort into the state this time, but he visited once and loaded up on campaign mailings to GOP activists. .

In Paul's case, he invested plenty of time and money in Minnesota as he searched for the first win of his campaign. He said he's happy with the results and will shift his sights to Maine, where caucus results are due Saturday.

In a brief appearance at Coon Rapids Middle School, Paul waded through a crowd to sign autographs, pose for photos and remind people to vote. He declined to make any predictions on the Minnesota outcome before heading to another suburban Minneapolis caucus site.

Paul said his candidacy was perfectly built for Minnesota. "They love liberty, they don't like wars and they certainly don't like the Federal Reserve," he said.

One caucus-goer in Coon Rapids, truck driver Rod Garberson, said if Paul isn't the fall nominee the Republican Party won't get his vote.

"I gotta tell ya, this time I'm pretty well stuck on not supporting the party even if it means eight years of Obama and we all stand in bread lines for five hours for a sack of potatoes," Garberson said.

Paul finished fourth in Minnesota four years ago with 16 percent.

Presidential Debate in Mesa, Wednesday, Feb 22

Source

Mesa offering viewing options, extras for Republican debate

2012 Republican Presidential Candidates Debate

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Posted: Thursday, February 16, 2012

By Garin Groff, Tribune

Wednesday's Republican primary presidential debate at the Mesa Arts Center will be closed to the public, but the city will host a viewing party downtown where thousands can gather to watch the event live.

Downtown will have plenty of room for spectators despite tight security and road closures, City Manager Chris Brady said. A 14-foot by 20-foot screen will show the debate, with live bands and food vendors nearby.

Mesa talked with other debate hosts about security provisions but heard nothing about viewing parties.

"We haven't been able to find anybody that's done that," Brady said. "Maybe it happened but it's never shown up on the radar. CNN, when we asked them, said ‘We never thought about that.'"

Mesa is working to take advantage of being in the spotlight for the first presidential debate it's ever hosted. The city has already done some spring cleaning and is posting festive banners as it prepares for 400 journalists who CNN said to expect in its media tent.

Downtown will remain accessible except for Main Street and Center along the arts center. The roads are closing for security reasons. Also, the adjacent eight-story office building owned by the Mesa Unified School District will close in the afternoon. The closure won't affect school operations, district spokeswoman Helen Hollands said.

A fence will surround the arts center campus, which debate host CNN is renting; CNN is also putting up the media tent for hundreds of reporters.

Even protestors will have an area. Some anti-war demonstrators have already called Mesa to inquire about the site, Brady said.

Mesa is hoping the debates draw a huge crowd to showcase its downtown, Brady said.

"If they couldn't get in, we want them to come and enjoy our viewing party," he said. "We don't know - we can only hope maybe some of the candidates will actually come out and talk to people."

Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com

-----------------------

If you go

When: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday. The debate will be shown live from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Where: Main Street between Center and Sirrine

Information: www.mesaaz.gov/todo/debate.aspx

Sorry Robb, the Americans are the terrorists, not the Arabs

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GOP debate: What the candidates need to do

The race for the Republican nomination for president has been framed by two questions and a dilemma.

The questions are:

* Which candidate would be the most efficacious conservative?

* Which candidate has the best chance of defeating Barack Obama in November?

The dilemma is this: Mitt Romney is not a natural fit to be leader of the Republican Party, but none of the other candidates, at this point, seem to be a natural fit to be president of the United States.

Now the questions and the dilemma have come to Arizona, for our Feb. 28 primary and the candidate debate to be held here on Feb. 22.

I may get stripped of my bola tie for saying this, but it would be better if the debate were being held in Michigan, which holds its primary the same day as Arizona.

In the first place, Michigan is where the candidates are playing more. Most of the other contenders are conceding Arizona, implicitly if not explicitly, to Romney. He’s been active in the state for some time, and has deep organization and support here. And Arizona is a winner-take-all primary. There are no delegates for a close second.

Michigan would also offer a better contrast between the two frontrunners on issues of a local dimension. Romney opposed the auto bailouts. Rick Santorum proposes an income tax rate of zero for manufacturers. Michigan would be an excellent place for a debate among the candidates about the extent to which the United States should have an industrial policy and what it should consist of.

The local issue that will inevitably come up in the Arizona debate is immigration, which is already well-trod ground for the candidates.

Still, Arizona is going to have a primary and host a debate. Here’s an admittedly idiosyncratic review of the candidates and what they need to do in the debate.

Mitt Romney

Romney’s claims to be a true-blue conservative are not believable regardless of how earnestly he makes them. For one thing, he equally as earnestly proclaimed himself not to be a conservative both times he ran for office in Massachusetts. (Earnestness seems to be a Romney character trait; if he read the phone book, he would do so earnestly.)

There is one notable attribute of Romney’s tenure as Massachusetts governor that hasn’t gotten enough attention in this race: he was tough on spending. He inherited large budget deficits and tackled them primarily through spending cuts and restraint.

Although he avoided broad-based tax increases, some conservative critics ding him for fee increases. But that’s misplaced. Using a budget squeeze to transfer funding responsibility from general tax sources to user fees is sound conservative fiscal policy.

What Romney needs to do in the debate: Romney is stuck. He is who he is, and for a large segment of Republican voters, that’s not good enough.

Romney’s authenticity is already on shaky grounds. The more passionate his proclamations of fidelity to conservative orthodoxy, the more hollow and phony he sounds.

Romney probably has no choice but to systematically dismantle Santorum the way he dismantled Newt Gingrich, and hope that if he gets the nomination he looks lovelier to the Republican faithful compared to Obama than he does on his own.

Rick Santorum

Santorum is the latest not-Romney to catch the fancy of the Republican faithful, and probably the last. If Romney can get past the Santorum challenge, he’s probably the nominee.

Santorum is a doctrinaire social conservative. Social conservatives come in two varieties: some regard economic conservatives as political coalition partners to find common ground with; others regard them as competitors whose influence needs to be checked and diminished.

Santorum has a troubling tendency to fall in the second camp.

He certainly hasn’t been a consistent economic conservative. He voted for No Child Left Behind and the Medicare prescription drug benefit. As a senator, he was a porker extraordinaire. He favors using the tax code and federal spending to advance social conservative causes. On free trade, he’s shown some protectionist tendencies, including voting against NAFTA. When the tea party was rising, he spoke disparaging about it and worried about its influence.

In short, Santorum isn’t well positioned to enlist socially liberal but economically conservative independents to support Republican efforts to fix the finances of the federal government, which ought to be the issue of this campaign.

What Santorum needs to do in the debate: This will be the first debate in which Santorum is auditioning to be a president, rather than just a better alternative to Romney than the other guys. He needs to act presidential, while fending off Romney’s probable attacks.

He also needs to demonstrate that he understands the primacy of economic issues in this election and welcomes economic conservatives, regardless of their views on social issues, rather than fretting about their influence.

Newt Gingrich

Gingrich is already a historically important conservative for the way in which he forged a Republican majority in the House in 1994. His claim to the presidency is that he can do something equally historic in 2012. Believing that requires forgetting what Gingrich has done between 1994 and 2012.

Other than moon colonies, the revolutionary idea Gingrich is offering in this campaign is the opportunity to opt out of the liberal welfare state. Don’t like the progressive income tax? You can use a voluntary flat tax. Don’t like Medicare? You can choose a private sector alternative. Don’t like the deal with Social Security? If you are young enough, you can opt for a private retirement account instead.

The problem is that allowing people to opt out of the progressive income tax and Social Security will increase the federal debt. If the federal debt were 50 percent of GDP, that might be OK. At over 100 percent of GDP, it exacerbates the country’s primary problem.

What Gingrich needs to do in the debate: Show that he can be more than an idea factory and an Obama attack dog. And outshine Santorum so much that he gets a second shot at being the not-Romney.

Ron Paul

Paul seems to be running more to make a point than win the nomination. If his goal was to increase the market share of libertarian views in Republican politics, he has already accomplished a lot. Not many are dismissing him as an irrelevant crank anymore.

The question is: to what end? As a practical matter where can libertarians influence Republican orthodoxy?

What Paul needs to do in the debate: The bellicosity of Republican political leaders on foreign policy is out of sync with independent voters and I suspect a reasonably large swath of Republican voters as well. Paul needs to advocate his non-interventionism without sounding like he’s blaming the United States for the terrorists who attack us. [ Sorry Robb, the American government is the cause of the problem in this case. The last 70 years of American foreign policy which helped the Israelis steal the land from the people of Palestine are the cause of the problem! If the Americas and their European allies had not stole the land from the Palestine people and given it to the Jews the Middle East problem would not exist!!!! ]

Paul is the only Republican presidential candidate with a specific short-term plan to get the federal government out of debt. He should play that up, to shame and challenge the others.

ron_paul.html#santorum_aint_consertive_12_02_21

Ron Paul's 'groovy' new ad calls Santorum a fake conservative

Source

By Michael A. Memoli

February 21, 2012, 12:25 p.m.

If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are best buds these days.

As Romney fights to stave off a potentially debilitating loss in Michigan's Feb. 28 primary, Paul is taking to the airwaves there with an ad that reinforces Romney's message that Rick Santorum betrayed conservative principles on spending when he served in Congress.

"Is this dude serious? Fiscal conservative? Really?" the edgy 30-second spot says.

It says Santorum voted to raise the debt ceiling, doubled the size of the Education Department, and "supported the biggest entitlement expansion since the '60s," referring to the Medicare prescription drug plan.

"Not groovy!"

The ad even seeks to undermine Santorum on social issues, saying he "even hooked Planned Parenthood up with a few million bucks."

"Once voters learn the truth about both Rick Santorum and Dr. Paul's records, they'll clearly see who the real fiscal conservative is and support our campaign," Paul's campaign manager writes in an email about the new spot.

Paul hasn't campaigned much in Michigan yet, as he continues to focus on caucus states voting in the run-up to Super Tuesday. So it may be Romney who stands to benefit most from the attack on Santorum there.

Nutty old uncle Ron Paul isn't so nutty!!!!

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GOP not prepared to cut federal debt

by Robert Robb, columnist - Feb. 22, 2012 12:00 AM

The Republic

The Republican presidential candidates regularly rail against the debt President Obama has racked up and proposes for the future. So, are they leveling with the American people about the problem and making proposals to bring the national debt under control?

Except for Ron Paul, the answer is: Not really.

Mitt Romney says he would cap federal spending at 20 percent of GDP "immediately." Reducing Obama's proposed spending of 23 percent of GDP to 20 percent would require cuts of more than $500 billion a year. Romney doesn't advocate specific cuts that come close to adding up to that.

Romney says he would reduce non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent and reduce the federal workforce by 10 percent. That would save about $40 billion.

Romney, as well as the other Republican candidates, would repeal "Obamacare." Estimates on what Obamacare will really cost are goosey, but repealing it would save big bucks. Let's assume somewhere in the range of $100 billion to $200 billion a year.

Romney has also excoriated Obama for his proposed defense budget and says he will keep defense spending at a minimum of 4 percent of GDP. That means, 10 years out, Romney proposes to spend $400 billion more on defense than Obama does. That significantly exceeds the total of any specific spending cuts Romney has advocated.

Rick Santorum proposes a balanced budget amendment at 18 percent of GDP, which would require cuts in what Obama proposes to spend in excess of $800 billion a year.

Santorum has embraced a broader array of spending restraints than has Romney. He would roll back non-defense discretionary spending to 2008 levels, impose a soft freeze on defense spending and freeze most social spending for five years. He would also cut the federal workforce and phase out agricultural and energy subsidies.

Coupled with repealing Obamacare, this would meaningfully reduce the deficit. But Santorum gives these savings away, and more, with his tax plan.

The Simpson-Bowles commission recommended lowering individual tax rates by broadening the base. Santorum proposes to lower rates but narrow the base by tripling the exemption for dependent children. Along with other tax proposals, the Tax Policy Center estimates that the Santorum plan would reduce federal revenues by $900 billion a year.

Newt Gingrich says that better management of the federal government could save $500 billion a year. Even if true, Gingrich also gives away more than that with his tax plan, which features an optional 15 percent flat tax. Those using the option will obviously be those who would pay more under the current system. The Tax Policy Center estimates the revenue loss at $850 billion a year.

Chances are these estimates of revenue loss are overstated. But even if off by a third or more, the bottom line is that neither Santorum nor Gingrich are, net, proposing much that would actually reduce the federal debt.

Ron Paul is. He would balance the budget in three years by rolling back federal spending across the board to 2006 levels and start cutting from there. He would completely eliminate five federal agencies -- Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Interior and Education.

The math of Paul's proposal works. The politics do not. The country might accept the kind of serious steps necessary to fix the federal government's finances over time. It's not ready to go cold turkey.

The Republican candidates are considerably better than Obama on entitlement reform. But entitlement reform relieves the longer-term debt problem. It doesn't get the country back on the path to fiscal rectitude in the intermediate term.

The bad news for the country is that President Obama isn't serious about getting federal debt under control. The really bad news is that, at this point, neither are the Republican candidates to replace him.

Reach Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8472.

Ron Paul knows Sheriff Joe Arpaio sucks???

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Santorum (and others) kiss up to Arpaio on CNN

Earlier today Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Twitter handler (Arpaio brags about still having a typewriter on his desk.) sent out a tweet reading, “It was nice to be recognized several times during last night's presidential debate re: my fight against illegal immigration.”

The CNN moderator, John King, mentioned Arpaio in a question about immigration enforcement and candidate Rick Santorum went out of his way to kiss up to the sheriff, saying in part, “I think what we need to do is to give law enforcement the opportunity to do what they're doing here in Arizona and what Sheriff Arpaio was doing before he ran into some issues with the federal government…”

All of the candidates (with the exception of Ron Paul, I believe) have contacted Arpaio seeking his endorsement.

Two questions:

Does an Arpaio endorsement mean anything in Arizona?

Does an Arpaio endorsement mean anything in the rest of the country?

I’m thinking:

No.

And.

No.

(Ask Rick Perry about this. And J.D. Hayworth. And Mitt Romney – last time around – and…)

There probably was a time – it is difficult to remember if that is so – when the very LAST thing that a presidential candidate would do is seek the endorsement of a law enforcement official currently under the investigative thumb of the U.S. Justice Department.

Now, politicians get to claim that everyone with whom they are politically aligned is a martyr being persecuted by “politically motivated” hatchet men.

That is, unless their side is in charge, in which case completely righteous and courageous investigators would be going after a politically motivated and corrupt law enforcement official.

Which means that the side that is “right” isn’t necessarily the side that is “right,” but only the side that wins.

Debt would grow under most GOP candidates' plans

Only Ron Paul's proposals begin to dramatically curve debt downward, according to a report Thursday from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Source

Debt would grow under most GOP candidates' plans, report says

By Lisa Mascaro

February 23, 2012, 1:01 p.m.

President Obama is roundly criticized by Republicans for running up the nation's debt load, but tax and spending proposals from the GOP presidential contenders show debt would continue to rise under their watch -- sometimes to even more alarming levels.

Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have presented policies that would all push debt beyond current projections, largely because their proposed tax cuts would outweigh the benefits of slashing budgets on the spending side of the ledger. Only Ron Paul's proposals begin to dramatically curve debt downward, according to a report Thursday from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The sober analysis shows how difficult it will be for any new inhabitant in the White House to shift the nation's debt trajectory, and the need for long-term and bipartisan efforts to gain revenues and curb spending -- particularly at a time of rising Medicare costs for the aging population, the budget watchdog group said.

"I don't think cutting revenues further is the responsible thing to do – and they all do it," said Alice Rivlin, the founding director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and now a director of the budget watchdog group that released Thursday's report.

"We're not going to be able to absorb this tsunami of seniors and their need for healthcare with the revenue we have," she said. "I would give them low marks."

The nation's debt problems have continued to concern the public. At a GOP debate earlier this week, the first question asked the contenders what they would do to "bring down the debt?"

Obama's proposals would also send debt rising above what budget experts say is a sustainable level. The nation's debt load is typically measured as a portion of the economy, or gross domestic product – with 60% being an internationally accepted level of debt. (Budget experts count so-called public debt, which excludes transfers among governmental accounts, such as Social Security, that are often tapped to balance the books.)

Under current assumed policies from Washington – including the continuation of the Bush-era tax cuts that are set to expire in December – public debt would hit 85% of GDP by 2021, according to the budget group.

Gingrich, the former GOP House speaker, noted during this week's debate the balanced budgets he achieved during the Clinton administration. But the budget experts said his policies, including his proposed spending on space exploration, would send debt to 114% of GDP. Santorum's policies would push it to 104%.

Romney's plans, including his proposed 20% reduction in tax rates released this week, would send public debt to between 85% and 96% of GDP, depending on the level of new revenue his proposals could generate through tax policies, the budget watchdogs group said.

Only the proposals from Paul, the libertarian Texan congressman who wants to dramatically limit the reach of government, brings the debt below current projections.

The Medicare changes sought by the Republican contenders did not figure into the budget group's assessments because the effects would largely be felt outside the standard 10-year budget window. The GOP candidates largely hew to versions of the Medicare changes from Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisc.), which would provide seniors a stipend to buy private insurance.

The budget hawks also dismiss GOP assertions that tax cuts will pay for themselves by growing the economy – saying that while lower tax rates can stimulate growth, they are not expected to raise enough to make up for lost revenues.

The nation's total debt load, now $15 trillion from all accounts, doubled during the George W. Bush administration and then skyrocketed again under Obama. For the last several years, annual deficits, expected to reach $1.1 trillion this year under Obama, have been at record levels since World War II.

But the GOP candidates would continue to run deficits, said Bill Frenzel, a former GOP congressman from Minnesota who was the top Republican on the House Budget Committee and is now on the budget group's board of directors. In fact, none of the four leading GOP contenders would "get us to a balanced budget in 10 years."

lmascaro@tribune.com

Ron Paul beats Obama head-to-head

Ron Paul poll shocker: He beats Obama head-to-head

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / February 28, 2012

How about this for a poll shocker: While everybody in US politics has been preoccupied with the Michigan primary, Ron Paul has sneaked up on President Obama and for the first time leads the incumbent in a head-to-head survey.

That’s right, leads – as in, ahead of, out front, winning, and so forth. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday, at the moment Representative Paul bests Mr. Obama in a head-to-head matchup by 43 to 41 percent.

The same poll has Mitt Romney tied with Obama, at 44 percent each. Rick Santorum is three points behind the president, according to Rasmussen, and Newt Gingrich is 10 points behind.

Wow. Paul is outperforming all the other GOP candidates, by this measure. His campaign is spinning this as evidence he’s the most electable of all.

“In order to win back the White House, Republicans must nominate a consistent candidate that offers something besides the status quo. Ron Paul is that candidate,” said national campaign chairman Jesse Benton in a statement on the Rasmussen results.

Well, we hate to be the bearer of cold water, but we’ve got a couple of comments to make on this.

First, one poll does not a white-haired Texas libertarian president make. As we said, this is the only head-to-head matchup to this point that shows Paul beating Obama. The RealClearPolitics rolling average of such polls still has Paul behind by a little over seven points.

Plus it’s, you know, hypothetical. Paul is not actually running against Obama at the moment. And the polls that have to do with him getting to that point aren’t so positive at the moment.

In the RealClearPolitics poll average of the four GOP contenders, Paul remains in fourth, as the choice of 12 percent of Republican voters. He’s not outperforming that figure in any big March 6 Super Tuesday states, either. In Ohio, he’s at 10.7 percent. In Georgia, he’s at 8.8 percent. He’s doing a bit better in Tennessee, at 15 percent in a recent Vanderbilt University poll, but that’s still good for only third place.

Of course, there is always the chance that Paul can take a few delegates in Tuesday’s Michigan primary. State rules allocate two delegates to the winner of each congressional district, and it’s possible that Paul could win in districts that include the University of Michigan and Michigan State. (He’s big with young people, in case you didn’t know.)

And the Washington caucuses are March 3. They’ll be another test of Paul’s strategy of focusing his energy, money, and organization on caucus states.

The roar of Ron Paul: Five of his unorthodox views on the economy

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The roar of Ron Paul: Five of his unorthodox views on the economy

Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who is expected to announce an official "exploratory committee" for a presidential run Tuesday, is known for his passionate espousal of free markets and sound money. To supporters, Congressman Paul has stood as a lone voice of reason in Congress, wiser than Wall Street. Critics see his views on issues like reviving a gold standard or ending the Federal Reserve as simplistic and more dangerous than the ills he hopes to cure.

Here are his own words on key economic issues:

1. Federal budget deficits

From a statement released by Ron Paul on April 25, 2011:

"Last week the financial markets were roiled by Standard & Poor’s announcement that they will change their outlook on the fiscal health of the United States over the next two years from 'stable' to 'negative'....

"Even the most conservative budget that has been proposed by Republican leadership requires raising the debt ceiling by an additional $9 trillion by 2021. This demonstrates absolutely that no one in power right now has any real intention of addressing our spending problems or paying down the debt. They simply expect to continue to borrow and run up more debt forever, without limit.

"Yet they always imagine our dollar will have value no matter how many we print. This expectation is foolish and naïve. I guarantee that those buying our debt are not foolish and naïve enough to go along with this charade forever."

2. Taxes and the size government

From an interview with Cenk Uygur on MSNBC, March 2, 2011:

Uygur: What do you think should be the proper income tax rate?

Paul: Well, the best would be zero. I mean, we lived most of our history with zero income tax. But you would have to have the proper sized government. You would have to have the proper role for government.

You can't be the policeman of the world and not have an income tax. So I would not have all my troops around the world. I would be bringing the troops home.

And I wouldn't have a military industrial complex that demands so much, but I wouldn't have a welfare state either.

And under those conditions, you don't need an income tax. And I think that's the way it should be....

I think when people take money from you and give it to somebody else, that's the equivalent of stealing from you. I don't want to take any of your money. I want you to invest it and create jobs.

3. The gold standard

From a congressional hearing, Sept. 17, 2000:

"A characteristic of paper money, of fiat money, is that some benefit and others lose. And a good example of this of how Wall Street benefits, certainly Wall Street is doing very well, but just the other day I had one of my shrimpers in my district call me. He says he's tying up his boat. His oil prices have more than doubled, and he can't afford it, so for now he will have to close down shop.

"So he suffers more than a person on Wall Street. So it is an unfair system. And this is not unusual; this is a characteristic well-known, that when you destroy and debase a currency, some people will suffer more than others....

"If you increase the supply of money, you have inflation."

4. Federal Reserve

From a congressional hearing, July 16, 2008:

"Our government tells us, well, there is no recession so things must be all right. A lot of people are very angry....

"From my viewpoint, what we need is a world-class dollar, you know, a dollar that is sound, not a dollar that continues to depreciate and not a system where we perpetually just resort to inflation and deficit-financing to bail out everybody. And this is what we've been doing.... The handwriting on the wall is, there's a limit to how many times we can bail the dollar out, because conditions are so much worse today than they have ever been.

"You know, we talk a lot about predatory lending, but I see the predatory lending coming from the Federal Reserve – interest at 1 percent, overnight rates, loaning to the banks, encouraging the banks and investors to do the wrong things, causing all the malinvestment."

5. Free markets

From a congressional hearing, March 24, 2009:

Paul: The question really comes out, who should allocate capital? Is it the free market, or should it be government? And I think that we had a system where the free market wasn't working, and we didn't have capitalism. The allocation of capital came from the direction of the Federal Reserve and a lot of rules and regulations by the Congress.

We had essentially no savings, and capital's supposed to come from savings; and we had artificially low interest rates. So look at all that, and this means we'd have to look differently at what our solutions should be. Everybody loves the boom. That was great. Nobody questions all this. But when the bust comes, everybody hates it.....

So where do you put the blame, on the market or on crony capitalism that we've been living with probably for three decades?

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke: Congressman, I certainly do not reject capitalism. I don't think this was a failure of capitalism per se.... It is nevertheless the case that we've seen over the decades and the centuries that financial systems can be prone to panics, runs, booms, busts. And for better or worse, we have developed mechanisms like deposit insurance and lender of last resort to try to avert those things. Those protections, in turn, require some oversight to avoid the build-up of risk....

Paul: Isn't that what creates the moral hazard, though? Isn't that the problem, rather than the solution?

How will Ron Paul's supporters vote in the general election

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Where will Ron Paul’s supporters go for the general election?

By Sandhya Somashekhar, Published: March 5

Ron Paul’s rallies this year have yielded quirky and eclectic crowds — bow-tie-wearing libertarians, scruffy anti-establishment types, large religious families and packs of antiwar college students, all drawn with an unusual fervor to the presidential candidate’s unique libertarian message.

Many mainstream Republicans have long viewed his supporters as a fringe element. But they face a gnawing question: What if Paul’s followers do not fall in line behind the eventual GOP nominee, who will need every vote possible to defeat President Obama in the fall?

Preliminary polls have not shown that Ron Paul is in first place to win the New Hampshire primary, but you wouldn’t know that from looking at his supporters. Compared with other candidates’ contingents, Paul’s supporters are often the most vocal, the most visible and the most flamboyant. And many of them used to call themselves Democrats — or still do.

Preliminary polls have not shown that Ron Paul is in first place to win the New Hampshire primary, but you wouldn’t know that from looking at his supporters. Compared with other candidates’ contingents, Paul’s supporters are often the most vocal, the most visible and the most flamboyant. And many of them used to call themselves Democrats — or still do.

A significant share of Paul voters — 35 percent of those in a Michigan exit poll last week — say they would not vote for any other GOP candidate. And even as Paul’s rivals adopt some of his rhetoric, it remains to be seen whether his followers will shift their allegiance.

“I just don’t see it,” said Omer Rafi, 24, a college student and owner of a polo equipment company in Woodbridge. “The establishment, they marginalize not just Ron Paul but the supporters as well. They call us cultists and all sorts of names: ‘Paul-bots.’ ‘Obsessive.’ After treating us like that, I don’t know how they can feel like we are supposed to become obligated to these guys.”

Rafi was among 2,000 supporters who gathered for a Paul rally last week in Springfield, a characteristically large crowd for the candidate, who has gained renown by calling for the elimination of the Federal Reserve, a drastic reduction in the size and scope of government, a return to the gold standard, and an end to most U.S. intervention overseas.

“It’s great to see the young people leading the charge, but we also see others at different age groups,” Paul told the crowd. “Ones who have been frustrated. The ones who have been independents. The ones who have dropped out. And even the frustrated Democrats have come over and said, ‘This understanding of liberty is good.’ . . . When this revolution is successful, it will not be a Republican monopoly at all.”

Paul has yet to win a nominating contest, and as of Monday he had the least number of delegates among the GOP contenders. And he is not expected to fare better in Virginia, even though he and Mitt Romney are the only two candidates on the Republican ballot there. Despite plans by some Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich supporters to vote for Paul as a protest against Romney, the former Massachusetts governor remains the heavy favorite in Virginia.

Paul has given no indication that he plans to run in the fall as an independent, but such a move would be devastating to the eventual nominee. A December Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that as a third-party candidate, Paul would drain crucial votes from the Republican nominee and virtually guarantee an Obama victory.

Paul’s close relationship with Romney has spawned speculation that he may ultimately endorse the former governor, a possibility that draws laughter from some of Paul’s most hard-core followers.

“I just can’t see him doing anything like that. Those two are about as far apart as you can think of,” said Jeff Benninger, 52, a freight courier from Annandale who said he is more likely to vote for a third-party candidate in the fall.

Paul’s campaign staff has tried to erode the perception that his support consists of a cult of personality around the 76-year-old congressman, who has run for president twice before.

“Four years ago, it felt like people were about Ron Paul and nobody else. It was not cultish, but it was less issue-driven and more about the man,” said a Paul campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about internal discussions. “Now it’s more issue-driven.”

Officials with the other campaigns say some of Paul’s supporters can be wooed. Even Obama’s campaign plans to court disaffected Paul backers, highlighting their common ground on the budget and foreign policy.

Rick Tyler, who heads a super PAC supporting Gingrich, said the involvement of Paul activists would be a boon to the GOP in a general election.

“Their energy is amazing,” he said, particularly among young people, one of the GOP’s weakest groups. But, he added, “many of them, they cannot concede a point ever. Ron Paul is right about everything, and if you bring up a countervailing point, they get mad at you rather than admit that’s a good point.”

Many of Paul’s supporters say they dread the general election, aware that Paul is unlikely to be on the ticket and deeply uncomfortable with the idea of casting a ballot for Romney. They will wait to hear from the man himself, knowing that Paul, ever the meticulous thinker, will have carefully considered the question of whether to endorse.

“I’m sure the Paul campaign will have some marching orders,” said Demetrios “James” Kifonidis, 35, a small-business owner from Fairfax who voted for Obama four years ago. “We trust the guy.”

Ron Paul against attacking Iran!!!

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Ron Paul says he's 'closer' to Obama than GOP rivals on Iran

By Robin Abcarian

7:55 p.m. CST, March 6, 2012

Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the only Republican candidate for president who did not appear today before an annual gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, revealed on CNN this evening what he might have told the group.

And it’s clear from his position -- that Iran is most definitely not a looming nuclear threat -- that his view not only would have been deeply unpopular among the pro-Israel lobbying group, but it also sets him far apart from his rivals, all of whom have embraced the idea that Iran is a top-tier threat to Israel and by extension, U.S. national security.

Paul, whose isolationist philosophy has made him popular among a relatively small but intense group of supporters, said he agreed with President Obama’s statement during a news conference today that the other three Republican candidates have been talking far too casually about the possibility of a military conflict with Iran. In a speech the other day, Obama chastised them for their “loose talk” of war.

“He certainly is closer to my position than the other candidates,” Paul said, “because what the other Republicans are saying is very reckless.”

Paul has yet to win a primary contest. No matter what happens tonight, he said he has no plans to drop out of the race and will stay in the hunt for delegates. To that end, he spent the day in Idaho and North Dakota, away from the bigger, delegate-rich states that are being fought over by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Paul also slammed Arizona Sen. John McCain for urging the president to consider airstrikes against the regime in Syria, and used the buildup to the Iraq war as an example of how the nation needs to pay closer attention.

“They're so anxious to go to war,” said Paul, who served in the U.S. Air Force as a young man. “It reminds me so much of our efforts before we went into Iraq.… Iraq was not a threat. They didn't have weapons of mass destruction. There was no Al Qaeda. I think the same thing is going on here. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Iranians have or are on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon, according to our own military people, our own CIA, according to the U.N. So I think it's blown way out of proportion.”

A war with Iran, he said, would be financially reckless as well. “The last thing this country needs -- and our military agrees -- is another war, because ultimately, though, yes, we can beat anybody, you know, militarily. But the military operation around the world is bankrupting this country. So the greatest threat to us is a financial crisis.”

Last summer, during a presidential debate, Paul turned off many conservatives when he said he didn’t think the U.S. should try to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Tonight, he said, “I don’t want them to have a weapon, but I also lived through the 1960s.… The Soviets, a ruthless, terrible nation, we dealt with them. They had 30,000 nuclear weapons. So I think the war drums are being much louder than they need to be. We need to defend our country, but we don’t need to be the aggressor nation.”

Ron Paul aims to collect stray delegates

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Rep. Ron Paul's campaign aims to collect stray delegates

By Jackie Kucinich, USA TODAY

Rep. Ron Paul's presidential campaign strategy of targeting caucus states appears to have fallen flat — he is still without a win — and with only one caucus state remaining, it might appear time for him to withdraw.

But that is not how the Paul campaign rolls. Instead, the campaign is trying to pick up stray delegates in states that have already held caucuses.

Paul has secured 48 delegates, according to the Associated Press tally, making the total of 1,144 needed to secure the Republican nomination out of reach.

But his campaign isn't worried.

Jesse Benton, a spokesman for the Paul campaign, said the end of the caucus states — at least until Montana meets in June — is "halftime" in its game plan for becoming the Republican nominee.

Like former House speaker Newt Gingrich, the Paul campaign is banking on a primary fight that goes right up until the convention in August.

Although Paul failed to win caucuses in states including Colorado, Iowa, Washington and Alaska, the process of awarding delegates in those states is not yet complete, leaving the door open for the Paul campaign.

Benton explained that while Paul hopes to win delegates in later primaries like California and Paul's home state of Texas, the current focus is using Paul's vast grass-roots network to pick up delegates during state conventions.

The Paul campaign is targeting the local meetings held in counties around the county that are part of the process of choosing national convention delegates, hoping to assure selection of Paul allies.

That process, so far, has been messy.

On Saturday in Missouri, the St. Charles County caucus, one of the state's largest, was shut down after a series of objections to the proceedings erupted into chaos, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Post-Dispatch reported that members of the crowd were "verbally aggressive with event organizers and police officers at the scene," and two Paul supporters were arrested after refusing police requests to leave.

Paul supporters also have been at work in Iowa, where local leaders have said Paul's advocates have attempted to subvert the rules.

In a March 7 e-mail to local Paul supporters obtained by USA TODAY, Paul campaign Chairman Drew Ivers stressed the importance of attending the local meeting where the delegates were being chosen for the next round of convention meetings.

"As a delegate or alternate to your Republican County Convention this Saturday, you have an opportunity to help select which delegates will attend the District and State Convention in Iowa," he wrote. "Remember, all our hard work is meaningless unless we finish the process by electing as many Ron Paul supporters as delegates as possible."

However, once there, the Paul supporters disrupted the process, causing one meeting in Polk County to stretch more than nine hours, according to a report in The Iowa Republican.

Dave Funk, co-chair of the Polk County Republicans of Iowa, said the antics of Paul supporters in Iowa, who have swarmed several county conventions in an attempt to become delegates, have hurt the Texas Republican in the Hawkeye State.

But even by employing these tactics, Funk said, it is unlikely Paul would be able to sway enough delegates to win the nomination on the convention floor in Tampa.

Josh Putnam, a visiting assistant professor of political science at Davidson College and author of the blog FrontloadingHQ, said the delegate fight is the the last hope for the Paul campaign.

"Viable or not, this was likely the only strategy that the Paul campaign had and has in this race," he said. "They knew that going in and have made a concerted effort to peel off as many unbound/unpledged delegates as they can, exploiting the caucus states' rules as a means of getting there."

Why Ron Paul draws big crowds but fails to catch on

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Why Ron Paul draws big crowds but fails to catch on

By Nia-Malika Henderson, Published: April 1

At first glance, Benjamin Stolz would appear to be the perfect prize for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Stolz, a freshman at the University of Maryland, agrees wholeheartedly with Paul on a range of issues — from seeing foreign intervention as too costly to agreeing that government spending should be cut. Stolz, an enthusiastic 18-year-old who has never voted, also admires Paul’s frankness and the Texas congressman’s ability to draw diverse crowds.

And Wednesday night, Stolz attended his first political rally, waiting in a long line at the Ritchie Coli­seum in College Park to hear Paul speak, joining nearly 2,000 other students who chanted “End the Fed” as the candidate took the stage.

But Stolz, though seemingly easy pickings for the Paul camp, is actually Paul’s problem.

Stolz did not file the right paperwork to vote in his adopted state of Maryland in Tuesday’s Republican primary, when 37 delegates will be at stake. And for all his enthusiasm for Paul’s ideas, which he calls “classical liberalism,” Stolz will not be casting a ballot for him this season, either in Maryland or in his home state of New Jersey.

“I’m waiting until the real thing to make a decision,” Stolz said, referring to the November elections, adding that he would vote for Paul then if he made a third-party run. “The two-party system has collapsed. Paul is better than that.”

That, in essence, has been the Ron Paul story this campaign season: enthusiastic crowds who love Paul’s fierce independence but fail to carry him to victory at the polls. After running in 30 states and gaining a scant 50 delegates, according to the Associated Press, Paul has learned a hard lesson: Crowds don’t vote.

Even though Paul has had a superior ground game in many smaller caucus states and has raised nearly $40 million, he has been unable to grab a victory in any state and has tallied about 1.1 million votes, half Newt Gingrich’s haul and a quarter of Mitt Romney’s.

The problem is this: Although Paul is running to lead a party that looks like him — older, whiter, Southern — his crowds are younger, war-weary, more diverse and less likely to identify with one party or to vote.

The same independent streak that leads the young and the restless to Paul’s libertarian philosophy seems to make it more unlikely that these supporters will pick a side and a party, which is a requirement for many of the primary and caucus contests.

A University of Maryland “Youth for Ron Paul” Facebook page underscores this point, suggesting that party affiliation is best sold as a short-term fling: “If you haven’t yet, PLEASE register Republican (for just a month) to vote for Ron Paul in the MD primary.”

Polls show that 18- to 29-year-olds made up 15 percent or less of voters in every state where exit polls exist and that Paul lost the youth vote in every contest since Florida’s.

And although Paul is often considered to be the grandfather of the tea party, he has struggled to gain a sizable share of those voters. Paul earned single-digit support among strong tea party backers in 11 of 18 contests in which exit poll data were available.

Paul aides call the crowd and vote total disparity a “puzzler,” and they see a hard-core group of supporters who show up at rallies and the polls but a curious, less committed “outer ring” of new converts who don’t show up.

Political observers say Paul, who played above his size in early contests, has underperformed and faded down the stretch.

“He is like an art film that everyone in the artistic film community loves, but it bombs at the box office. He has a small, very passionate following that shouts bigger than its size,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist. “They did well in smaller states, but at the end of the day you have to ask yourself if they really have that much power and if the tea party has that much power. ”

Yet in the GOP primary race, Paul and his aides see a kind of victory that can’t be measured in delegates. They see a party that is very much coming around to Paul’s limited-government, get-rid-of-it approach to almost everything. In rival Rick Santorum’s rhetoric about freedom and the Constitution, which Romney has tried to match, they see Paul’s fingerprints. And they note that Gingrich’s recent comments that the Afghanistan mission “may not be doable” edge close to Paul’s stance of a complete withdrawal.

Paul says that the race isn’t over yet and that there is still counting to be done in the state conventions, which they maintain will add many more delegates to Paul’s column.

“We haven’t counted all the votes yet because the delegate process is ongoing and we have a lot of states that we haven’t won the straw vote, but we’re going to see a lot of delegates come from this,” Paul said, when asked why he draws big crowds, but few votes. “One thing that is noticeable is that young people are more energetic and people notice them. Why we’re not in first place? It just means that this message is not received by everybody, but those numbers are changing.”

Paul certainly expanded his support beyond what he received in 2008, finishing a strong third in the Iowa caucuses and second in New Hampshire.

And although this could be the 76-year-old Paul’s last political race, there is still a second act: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Although Rand Paul, who proclaimed himself the tea party senator when he won his Senate seat in 2010, has only rarely campaigned with his father, he is very much a part of his father’s race.

Among Ron Paul’s top advisers is Trygve Olson, who advised Rand Paul during his Kentucky campaign.

In the younger Paul, tea party voters see something different.

Where Rep. Paul can be long-winded and professorial, Sen. Paul is direct and folksy.

“I would be a Rand Paul supporter in a heartbeat, but I’ve never seen myself as a Ron Paul supporter because I never thought Ron was someone who was able to govern,” said Ryan Rhoads, an Iowa tea party leader. “Ron Paul gets distracted on the podium. But Rand can explain what he believes, and does a better job of going out and trying to enact it.”

Whereas most candidates can at most hand off a list of contacts, Rep. Paul would hand off to his son an infrastructure, an organization (Campaign for Liberty) and a hard-core group of supporters looking to carry on the movement.

“Rand Paul is an omnipresent factor in this campaign. He helps us. It means that every dollar, every vote, every name and every piece of data is not in vain. It gives us purpose, something to learn from, something to improve on,” said Doug Wead, a senior adviser to the Paul campaign. “Even defeats are cherished and analyzed. A defeat, because of Rand, is a curiosity. It’s unspoken, but it’s very much present.”

Ron Paul draws crowd at UC Berkeley

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Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul draws crowd at UC Berkeley

By Doug Oakley

Contra Costa Times

Posted: 04/06/2012 07:28:36 AM PDT

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul spoke outside at UC Berkeley on Thursday night, telling a chilly crowd of about 1,000 that they need less government in their lives and more leeway to make their own decisions.

Paul said he is different from the other candidates because he is outside the liberal and conservative paradigm.

Medical marijuana, he said to cheers, would be fair game if he had the White House.

"It's a great issue if you want to bring left and right together," he said. "People from the right talk about states' rights. Just think about it. If you had states' rights in California you wouldn't have the feds coming in and invading and telling you what you do with your own body.

Prescription drugs are deadly, too, and there are probably more deaths from prescription drugs. The war on drugs is a total failure.

"I want a free society where you could actually have the freedom to drink raw milk if you want to."

Paul spoke in front of the Doe Library after organizers moved the talk from Zellerbach Hall, saying that venue, with a capacity of about 2,000, was sold out. But the crowd did not appear to be more than about 1,200.

Paul is vowing to push on with his campaign even though he has just 51 delegates of the 1,144 needed to get the Republican nomination. Mitt Romney has 655, Rick Santorum 278 and Newt Gingrich 135. The next votes in the Republican race are set for April 24 in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

The UC Berkeley student organization, Students for Liberty and Youth, hosted the 76-year-old congressman from Surfside, Texas.

Paul, who calls himself "the leading spokesman in Washington" for limited government, low taxes and free markets, visited Chico State on Tuesday and UCLA on Wednesday.

Paul had an enthusiastic reception in Berkeley, but at least one of his supporters who spoke before he arrived acknowledged his run for the presidency is a long, long shot.

"We don't have millions and millions of dollars like other candidates do," said Johnny Lee, who introduced himself to the crowd as Paul's San Jose campaign manager. "But we have each other. We can't even get our supporters to register Republican. That's why we're losing. We have no solidarity as a group. If we want to have any impact, we have to show some solidarity."

Paul sounded more upbeat, and the crowd went right along with him.

"What I suggest we do is cut the budget by a trillion dollars in one year," Paul said. "We'll start by stopping the wars and bringing our troops home and having them spend their money here at home. Why should we subsidize the defense of the Middle East and Korea and Japan?"

Paul also spoke about having fewer laws that get in the way of individual freedoms.

"On Jan. 1, they laid 40,000 new laws on us," Paul said. "I would like to be the first president who got rid of 40,000 laws."

Nearing the end of his talk, Paul let the crowd have a hint of optimism.

"Good ideas are starting to prevail once again," Paul said. "There's a growing sentiment in this country about changing our foreign policy. About 70 percent of people are now saying we have to get out of the Middle East and out of Afghanistan, and this is encouraging."

Paul called his style of libertarianism the kind in which someone can have a "heart and a brain at the same time. That's what freedom is all about. We don't want the government telling us what to do with our lives and our money."

Doug Oakley covers Berkeley. Contact him at 510-843-1408. Follow him at Twitter.com/douglasoakley.

Ron Paul wins in Maine

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Ron Paul wins majority of delegates from Maine GOP

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – With Mitt Romney's GOP presidential nomination all but decided, Ron Paul supporters took control of the Maine Republican Convention and elected a majority slate supporting the Texas congressman to the GOP national convention, party officials said. The results gave the Texas congressman a late state victory.

In votes leading to the close of the two-day Maine convention, Paul supporters were elected to 21 of the 24 delegate spots from Maine to the GOP national convention in Tampa, Fla. The 24th delegate's seat goes to party Chairman Charles Webster, who has remained uncommitted throughout the process.

Making the Paul takeover complete was the election of Paul supporters to a majority of the state committee seats.

"It's certainly a significant victory," said Jim Azzola of South Portland, Cumberland County coordinator for Paul.

Paul, the last challenger to remain in the contest, finished a close second behind Romney in Maine's GOP caucuses in February, but those results were nonbinding. Not everyone had a chance to cast a ballot before the results were announced, and a snowstorm forced the cancellation of some caucuses, including one in a Paul stronghold. Romney won the February straw poll with 39% of the vote to Paul's 36%. Rick Santorum trailed with 18% and Newt Gingrich got 6%.

Romney's aides say they do not view Paul as a threat to winning the nomination. But Romney and his team have also been mindful not to do or say anything that might anger Paul's loyal supporters.

"I think he's being very careful because he knows how important the Ron Paul voters are — they obviously represent a very different dynamic," said Mike Dennehy, a former top aide to Republican John McCain's 2008 campaign. "They are the most passionate and the most frustrated of any voters heading to the polls. And many of them are independents."

The weekend's turn of events — in a state neighboring one where Romney served as governor — would indicate the GOP has not yet united behind the presumptive nominee, and there are indications the infighting may last all the way to the national convention.

Paul supporters accused the Romney crowd Saturday of dirty tricks to garner more delegates. "We came here to see democracy in action. We are floored by what happened, absolutely floored to see the cheating," said Elizabeth Shardlow of Auburn, a Paul activist.

Charles Cragin, a Romney supporter who lost Saturday's bid to chair the convention, called the turn of events at the Maine convention "bizarre." Cragin said the Paul-led delegation may not be recognized at the national convention because of violations of rules of procedure this weekend in Augusta.

"They have so phenomenally screwed this up that they will go to Tampa and not be seated," Cragin said.

Another Romney supporter, delegate John Carson of Kittery, acknowledged "this is a split convention."

"The Paul supporters have had a successful process and should be congratulated on that," said Carson, a veteran of numerous state conventions. "I think it's important that the Romney camp and Paul camp come together and support a single candidate," Carson said, adding that candidate should be Romney.

Ron Paul wins in Nevada

Ron Paul nabs Nevada delegates from Romney

Published: Monday, May 7, 2012 2:37 AM MDT

SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul trumped presumptive nominee Mitt Romney in Nevada’s national delegate count Sunday, but he will only be able to parlay those supporters into votes for his longshot bid at the national GOP convention if Romney fails to win the nomination in the first round.

Of Nevada’s 25 delegates elected Sunday to go to the national convention, 22 openly support Paul and three back Romney. The state’s three other delegates are state party officials.

The results were certified as the state Republican Convention that was supposed to wrap up by 7 p.m. Saturday slogged into a second day. Paul supporters were successful not only in winning the lion’s share of national delegates but in outing the state’s national committeeman and committeewoman and replacing them with supporters of the Texas congressman.

Romney won Nevada’s caucus in February with half of the vote. Under party rules adopted last fall, Romney was to get 20 of Nevada’s 28 delegates for the national convention, and Paul was to get eight. Besides the 25 elected at the state convention, the other three Nevada delegates are state GOP Chairman Michael McDonald; National Committeeman Bob List; and National Committeewoman Heidi Smith.

List and Smith are Romney backers and their terms will end after the national convention.

Paul loyalists and state convention officials said Nevada’s national delegates will abide by that allocation in the first round of balloting in August at the national convention in Tampa, Fla. Delegates would be free to vote their preference in subsequent ballots in the unlikely event Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, fails to clinch the GOP nomination in the first round.

“If there’s a second ballot, shame on the Mitt Romney campaign for allowing that to happen,” said James Smack, a Paul supporter who will replace List on the Republican National Committee.

Neither the RNC nor the Romney campaign were expected to challenge the makeup of Nevada’s delegation, despite an implied earlier threat from a national party lawyer that Nevada’s delegation might not be seated in Tampa if it was packed with Paul backers.

Four years ago, party officials shut down the state convention when it appeared Paul would take most of Nevada’s delegates to the national convention. Paul backers have been building a grassroots network since then, and in 2012 took control of the Republican Party in Clark County, the state’s largest, and claimed a large share of seats on the state GOP central committee.

Carl Bunce, chairman of Paul’s campaign in Nevada, sought to assure convention goers that they are committed to rebuilding the party and defeating President Barack Obama in November.

“We’re working to grow this party,” he said. “There’s going to be growing pains in this party.”

“I do not want this party to fall apart,” he said, urging Republicans to unite.

But he also urged the Paul contingent within the party to show constraint and cooperation.

“Just because you have the power doesn’t mean you have to wield it,” he said. “Just because you have the sword doesn’t mean you have to strike.”

Why Ron Paul's big wins in Maine and Nevada matter

Why Ron Paul's big wins in Maine and Nevada matter

When Ron Paul delegates show up at the Republican National Convention in August, they may be strong enough to throw the event into disarray – just at the moment Mitt Romney needs to show the GOP united behind him.

Ron Paul scored big victories at the Maine and Nevada Republican Party conventions on Sunday. In both states his forces won the majority of delegates to this summer's national GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.

As we noted Sunday, this means Mr. Paul’s strategy of organizing the grass roots and working arcane delegate selection rules is paying off. And that could mean big trouble for Mitt Romney and his plans to smoothly pivot to a campaign aimed solely at incumbent President Obama.

Yes, Mr. Romney is still the presumptive nominee. It’s highly unlikely Paul will be able to deny the former Massachusetts governor the prize he’s sought for so long. But Paul’s forces aren’t lining up and saluting a Romney victory. When they show up in Tampa in August they may be strong enough, and prepared enough, to throw the convention floor into embarrassing disarray.

“All of this means the GOP can no longer ignore its libertarian ‘fringe.’ On the contrary, it will have to reach out to a new generation of activists who don’t regard religious piety or continual warfare as sacred tenets of conservatism,” wrote Oxford University historian Timothy Stanley in a CNN opinion column last week.

Let’s back up a bit and recap, shall we? On Sunday in Augusta, Maine, Paul supporter Brent Tweed narrowly won the election to chair the state’s GOP convention. From there, he presided over a meeting that ended up with Paul winning 18 of the state’s 24 delegates to Tampa.

Romney narrowly won Maine’s caucus straw poll earlier this year. But that was a nonbinding beauty contest. Sunday’s vote was what really counted.

In Sparks, Nev., the result was even more one-sided. Paul supporters won 22 of 25 delegates up for selection. But Nevada’s caucuses, unlike Maine’s, were binding on delegates. Some delegates were also awarded on an at-large basis. The bottom line: In the first round of voting in Tampa, 20 Nevada delegates are bound to Romney, and eight are free to vote for Paul, no matter their personal preference.

But that may not be the full story. Paul’s forces are not bound to make it easy for Romney to coast to victory, as delegate selection expert Josh Putnam, a Davidson College political scientist, writes on his Frontloading HQ blog.

Paul’s highly organized campaign continues to amass what Mr. Putnam labels “stealth delegates” – delegates pledged to Romney, or one of the withdrawn GOP candidates – who are personally in favor of the libertarian congressman from Texas. It’s hard to determine how many such folks Paul has, or what they’ll do in Tampa.

For instance, what if Paul supporters who are bound to vote for Romney in the first round by state rules simply abstain from casting their ballots? That might keep Romney under the 1,144 votes he needs to win the nomination – even if he actually (sort of) has those votes in hand!

“This is a tricky maneuver, but not one that is prohibited by the Republican Party delegate selection rules,” writes Putnam in a lengthy post devoted to the ways Paul could make trouble for Romney.

Again, this would be unlikely to prevent Romney from actually winning the nomination eventually. But it would prompt an embarrassing floor fight and expose rifts in the party at the very moment the Romney forces would most want to show a united front to the world.

Another unknown here is whether Paul wants to push things this far. Does he just want a good convention speaking slot, or influence on the party platform? Or does he want to win?

“Is Paul after the nomination? I don’t know. But his supporters sure are,” writes Putnam.

In any case, Paul’s weekend victories have left Romney supporters in Maine and Nevada fuming.

In Maine, Romney backer Craig Cragin called the turn of events at the state convention “bizarre,” according to the Bangor Daily News.

Mr. Cragin also predicted that the Paul people had violated rules in Augusta and thus would not even make it to the national convention in late summer.

“They have so phenomenally screwed this up that they will go to Tampa and not be seated,” Cragin said.

Arizona Ron Paul supporters boo Romney's son off stage

Arizona Ron Paul supporters boo Romney's son off stage

by Rebekah L. Sanders - May. 12, 2012 08:58 PM

The Republic | azcentral.com

Supporters of Ron Paul booed the son of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney off the stage Saturday at the Arizona Republican Party convention as he sought to solidify support for his father's nomination.

Hundreds of state GOP members were gathered at Grand Canyon University to elect delegates for the national convention in August in Tampa, which is expected to select Mitt Romney as the official Republican nominee to challenge President Barack Obama.

"We cannot afford four more years of President Obama," said Josh Romney, the third of Mitt Romney's five sons. "We need someone to step in there and turn things around."

But Josh had to stop repeatedly as people booed and yelled for Paul, who has continued campaigning in the Republican primary. All other challengers, including Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, have dropped out of the race, and Romney has a commanding lead over Paul in the estimated delegate count.

But Paul supporters have begun flooding state conventions, recently winning control of delegate majorities in Nevada and Maine.

Josh tried to appease the crowd, taking a minute to recognize his father's former challengers.

"I recognize how hard it is to run for president, the sacrifice those men and women made running for president," he said. "It's a great contribution they've made to the party."

He recapped his father's background of turning around failing companies, rehabilitating the Salt Lake City Olympics organization and balancing the budget as governor of Massachusetts. Josh Romney said his dad stepped up to the added challenges of taking care of the family after his wife, Ann, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

But as Josh wrapped up, with an admonition to choose the preferred slate of Mitt Romney delegates, the crowd exploded with competing boos and cheers, cutting him short.

Some attendees said they heard Paul supporters chanting outside that Mitt Romney is "the white Obama."

State party chair Tom Morrissey asked everyone to stay respectful.

"Maybe it's going to take getting behind somebody we weren't so excited about. ... What I want is to save this country, and we've gotta do it together. None of us gets everything we want," Morrissey said, adding, "Keep your eye on the prize: defeating Barack Obama."

Arizona is a winner-take-all state, meaning that all of the state's available 29 national delegates will go to one candidate. Arizona originally had 58 delegates, but the Republican National Committee took away half as punishment for the state's decision to break party rules and hold its primary before March6.

Sydney Hay, a former Arizona congressional candidate at the event on Paul's behalf, did not directly encourage delegates to support Mitt Romney, but in her speech called for "unity" and said "Mitt Romney, too, comes from a faith tradition that holds our Constitution as sacred."

Ron Paul drops out of Presidential race???

Ron Paul: 'We will no longer spend resources'

May. 14, 2012 01:50 PM

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas and a favorite of tea partyers, effectively ended his presidential campaign Monday but urged his fervent supporters to continue working at the state party level to cause havoc for presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

In an email to supporters, Paul urged his libertarian-leaning backers to remain involved in politics and champion his causes despite the apparent end of his presidential aspirations. Paul has found success in wrecking the selection process for delegates to the party's late-summer nominating convention in Tampa, Fla., and trumpeted that he has delayed Romney's expected nomination.

"Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted," Paul said in his statement. "Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state and congressional elections, where so many defenders of freedom are fighting and need your support."

Paul's supporters have proved successful in winning state GOP conventions in places such as Maine and Nevada. His supporters in Iowa and Nevada were chosen to lead the state central parties.

Paul's flock is likely to make similar inroads this weekend in Minnesota, which Paul was slated to address. Paul has already dominated the state's congressional district conventions, winning at least 18 of the 24 national delegates selected, even though he finished a distant second to Rick Santorum in local caucuses in February.

"Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that liberty is the way of the future," Paul vowed.

Primaries have not been Paul's strong suit -- he hasn't won a single primary or caucus. But Paul's supporters have successfully navigated the convention process in a number of states, adding to Paul's delegate total while gaining influence over state parties.

Romney, however, is on pace to capture the nomination this month. He has 973 of the 1,144 delegates required to formally become the GOP's nominee, according to an Associated Press tally. Vanquished foe Santorum has 264 and Newt Gingrich has 130. Paul badly trails with 104 delegates.

Romney already is campaigning against Obama, and Paul's announcement does little to change the head-to-head campaign in November.

Paul is unlikely to endorse Romney as the party's nominee. The pair strongly clashed during the debates over foreign policy, and in interviews Paul has refused to say he would champion Romney's campaign.

Many of Paul's libertarian views dovetail nicely with mainstream Republican ideas on limited government and low taxes. But Paul breaks with much of his party when he rails against American intervention abroad and government efforts to fight terrorism at home -- positions that earned him a loyal following.

Paul, a longtime congressman, is not running for another term to represent his Texas district.

Ron Paul's army may have a loud voice at GOP convention

By Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times

June 18, 2012, 4:46 a.m.

DES MOINES — Rick Santorum narrowly won January's Iowa caucuses, and future Republican nominee Mitt Romney finished a close second. But when the state's delegates head to the Republican National Convention in August, most of them will be loyal backers of third-place finisher Ron Paul.

His haul of delegates from a weekend Iowa convention is part of the Texas congressman's quiet strategy to have a strong, vocal presence at the national gathering in Tampa, Fla. There's no mathematical way for Paul to derail Romney's nomination. But he and his supporters have taken advantage of the fact that, in states like Iowa, election day results don't determine actual delegates.

By working arcane rules at district, county and state gatherings around the country, his supporters have amassed an army of delegates who will try to ensure that his libertarian message about the economy, states' rights and a noninterventionist foreign policy is loudly proclaimed.

Paul's backers will also try to shape the party platform as they dare Republicans to take them for granted — much as social conservatives did years ago before they ascended in importance.

"We want to influence the direction of the party more than anything else," said Joel Kurtinitis, who was Paul's state director in Iowa until the congressman effectively ended his presidential bid in May. He said efforts by followers of Paul, a 76-year-old who will retire when his current term ends, are about more than him or his son Rand, a senator from Kentucky.

"We're going to hold up our values and we're going to bring conservatism back to the mainline of the Republican Party," Kurtinitis said.

But others say the move by the Iowa GOP is a black eye for the state's first-in-the-nation voting status and for Romney.

"Embarrassment is the word that comes to my mind," said Jamie Johnson, who served as Santorum's state coalitions director in Iowa. The former Pennsylvania senator, who endorsed Romney after ending his presidential bid in April, appears to have a solitary Iowa delegate heading into the convention.

Paul's convention wishes are unclear. Many assume he wants a prime-time speaking slot or a presence in the platform for his views, but he has been less than specific. In an email to supporters this month, he said he expected to have about 200 delegates, and hundreds more who back his positions while bound to support Romney.

"While this total is not enough to win the nomination, it puts us in a tremendous position to grow our movement and shape the future of the GOP!" Paul wrote.

Paul will headline a rally in Tampa on Aug. 26, and his followers are planning a three-day "Paul Fest" before the convention.

Paul didn't win a single voting contest outright, and he stopped actively campaigning in May. But he and his fiercely loyal followers long recognized an opening in the nomination process: While the campaigns and news media often suggest delegates are chosen on primary and caucus days, the reality is that sometimes they aren't.

Iowa was a prime example of a state where delegates are free to vote their conscience. The state has 28 delegates; three of the slots are reserved for the state party chairman and Iowa's two Republican National Committee members. Two of the three are Paul loyalists.

The remaining 25 were elected at the state GOP convention over the weekend. Of those, 21 were Paul backers, who won their spots because of his supporters' success in flooding state and local party gatherings to nominate delegates, for which they then fought vocally and at times angrily.

"I always say they didn't do anything wrong," said Craig Robinson, a founder of the Iowa Republican website. "Look, when everyone else was focused on winning other states — Romney, Santorum, [Newt] Gingrich — no one really except for the Paul campaign had roots back in Iowa who continued to work this process."

Paul supporters have engaged in similar efforts across the country. They also control state delegations from Nevada, Maine and Minnesota. Their efforts have at times erupted into clashes that led to arrests and party resignations. One of Romney's sons was booed off the stage at a party gathering in Arizona. Paul's campaign has pleaded for civility, but it remains unclear what the delegates will do in Tampa.

"Where their leverage is going to be is in how smoothly the convention plays out. They hold the wild card. They can delay events taking place in Tampa with parliamentary procedure," said Josh Putnam, a professor at Davidson College in North Carolina who has studied political conventions.

He said it would be a mistake to assume the Paul delegates are monolithic. Some are focused on long-term goals of remaking the GOP, but others are focused on creating instant change, such as trying to block Romney's nomination.

"Romney's going to be the nominee," Putnam said. "It's just a question of how much of a headache are these folks going to make for Romney or the RNC."

Romney and his campaign have treated Paul and his followers deferentially. The two men and their wives are fond of one another, and Romney's backers appear mindful of not alienating Paul's fiercely loyal supporters.

At the Iowa convention, a Romney staffer who flew in from Boston watched the proceedings but did not intervene. At the Romney table, workers distributed three fliers to conventioneers — a general brochure, an invitation to a Davenport rally on Monday, and a news release that touted Romney's endorsement by Paul's son, Rand, and effusively lavished praise on the senator who many believe is the heir apparent for Paul's movement.

But some predicted that if Romney or the GOP did not give Paul his due in Tampa, there would be chaos.

"If they don't give Ron Paul or Rand Paul prime time, they will turn Tampa 2012 into Chicago '68," said conservative Iowa radio host Steve Deace, referring to a Democratic National Convention that was beset with riots and violence. "They will lose their minds."

seema.mehta@latimes.com

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