Is Ron Paul Now The Favorite For GOP Presidential Nomination?

By on December 13, 2011 in News 35

Ronpaul1Slowly but surely, the mainstream media is coming to terms with the fact that Ron Paul may very well be Republican voters’ first choice. From the Wall Street Journal:

Ron Paul is the wild card in the Republican presidential deck—and that makes him one of the most important cards of all right now.

It was possible earlier this year to write off the libertarian Texas congressman as an eccentric simply looking, as he did four years ago, for a place on a debate stage to proclaim his gospel of small government and hard money. But now Mr. Paul appears to be the man who could shape the outcome of the Iowa caucuses, which could go a long way toward shaping the overall race.

Nationally, Mr. Paul’s support runs a modest 10% or so in most polls, putting him well behind front-runners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. But in Iowa, four polls in the past couple of weeks have put him at an average of 18%—high enough to compete for second place.

Indeed, to watch Saturday night’s Iowa debate, and hear the audience reaction to Mr. Paul, was to sense how well he is striking chords with voters. A strong Paul performance in Iowa would go a long way toward determining not just the outcome of the Jan. 3 caucuses there, but the path of the crucial phase of the race that immediately follows Iowa…

If Mr. Paul really exceeds expectations in Iowa, that also might set the stage for him to break away from the GOP down the road and mount an independent presidential run. After all, he ran before as a Libertarian Party candidate, in 1988.

“If Paul wins Iowa, which is not out of the question, then you’re going to see a lot of forces [within the Republican Party] try to denigrate him and cut him back,” says Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. “Then I could see Paul saying, ‘I’ve been screwed by this party’s establishment, so screw you, I’ll run as an independent.’ ”

There are two particular reasons to take Mr. Paul seriously in Iowa. One is the strange nature of caucuses, and the second is the resonance of his libertarian message in this year of evaporating faith in government…

[continues in the Wall Street Journal]

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  • baddy

    firsth!

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    > Ron Paul is the wild card in the Republican presidential deck

    there hasn’t been a president elected
    let alone a major party candidate run
    that wasn’t owned
    by the Military-Industrial-Bankster Complex
    since Andrew Jacksonand
    in modern times only Nixon was not CIA

    so my guess is Ron Paul doesn’t have snowballs chance
    unless he’s workin for da man
    which wouldn’t surprise me either

  • Mysophobe

    I’m having trouble understanding why Ron Paul wants to end the fed. The federal reserve is a private corporation, thus an innovative and highly efficient self-regulating way to control monetary policy, based on the profit motive and free market principles. What, is he gonna have the US government do that job instead? They’ll just screw it up like they do everything else. I thought the government that governs least governs best. Tell Ron Paul to leave the fed alone, we’ve got too much government in our lives already.

  • Mysophobe

    I’m having trouble understanding why Ron Paul wants to end the fed. The federal reserve is a private corporation, thus an innovative and highly efficient self-regulating way to control monetary policy, based on the profit motive and free market principles. What, is he gonna have the US government do that job instead? They’ll just screw it up like they do everything else. I thought the government that governs least governs best. Tell Ron Paul to leave the fed alone, we’ve got too much government in our lives already.

  • 5by5

    Well he’s up next. They’re already dated and dumped everybody else….

    To me, this is just proof that the entire Republican Party is gay and in the closet. Because they’ve gone through more candidates/boyfriend & token girlfriends than a go-go boy in a bath house during the 1970′s.

  • Andrew

    If he gets elected, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when he gives up most of his principles or the shadow government assassinates him.

  • DeepCough

    Myso is an undercover agent for the FED!

  • DeepCough

    I get the feeling that Ron Paul is just going to go the way of Mike Gravel: the networks will kick him out, because Paul portrays himself as a man who gives a shit, and when 2012 comes around, it’s gonna be high time for the GOP to pick its Republican stooge to go up against the Democratic stooge.

  • SovCurtis

    ” What, is he gonna have the US government do that job instead?”

    No, if you’d been paying attention for the last four years you’d know he has repeatedly introduced legislation to allow competition in the monetary system, specifically removing the tax on gold and silver, and legalizing competing currencies. THAT is a free market solution. The Fed is a mercantalist solution…

  • TheDreamerIsStillAsleep

    That is my greatest fear…that they will take him out. All they have to do is slip into his room while he sleeps and make it look as though an old man went to bed and never woke up. They would have done the same thing to Obama if he had actually tried to implement any of the Change which he so often spoke about…assuming he ever had any intention of doing so and that it was not all a sham to get his foot in the door. Or it could be like that Bill Hicks skit, where they pull the new president into a room and show him a video of the JFK assassination from an angle no one has ever seen before and then say: “Any questions, sir?” But I believe that Paul has the courage of his convictions and that he would not back down.Thus, my fear for his safety…

  • TheDreamerIsStillAsleep
  • Mysophobe

    So the solution is to further delegate the US Government’s power to coin it’s own currency? Isn’t that what got us into this mess in the first place? And I’m not an agent, cough. Just a dude trying to get on Nathalie Rothschild’s good side.

  • SovCurtis

    No, private institutions wouldn’t be coining US currency, they would be coining their own competing currency. One person/group might decide that a hard money coinage would be ideal, and thus they’d start banging out silver and gold rounds. Another might decide that a labor backed currency was ideal. Another might decide a corn backed currency might be best. Others might decide to start trading in Euros, or Pesos, or Loonies or whatever else they want.

    We’re simply talking about ending the penalty for trading in a currency other than the Federal Reserve Note. This is nothing new, when the US was still British colonies the Spanish pieces of eight were the most popular currency.

  • http://www.facebook.com/1LittleBlackBox Demi’s Little Black Box
  • CK

    Educate yourself for real- Ron Paul is much, much farther to the ultra-religious right than anyone could know:

    http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/3/15/142615/800

    With the GOP in flux, Paul FINALLY comes out of the Reconstructionist closet:

    http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/saint-paul-inside-ron-paul-effort-convince-christian-150637605.html

  • CK

    Educate yourself- More information detailing Paul’s covert Christian Reconstructionist agenda and deceptive tactics: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/12/9/165231/581/Front_Page/Ron_Paul_s_Fresh_Faith_Outreach_in_Iowa

  • Mysophobe

    Each one of these competing currencies (even a hard currency if the law were changed), would presumably be part of the international currency exchange and subject to a valuation in US dollars or some other currency. How would these new currencies be truly independent competition for the dollar without their issuers resorting to artificial monetary supply manipulation as the fed does? Will the issuers back their currency with their full faith and credit, insure deposits, settle contract disputes, lay and collect taxes (payable to the US Govt) and provide all the other countless benefits and conveniences of making transaction made with federal reserve notes? Simply changing the medium of exchange seems to change nothing. Exercising our constitutional option to buy back the fed for $450 million and bringing it under full government control seems to be the only way. At least then they’d have to answer to us. What am I missing?

  • Mysophobe

    Touché.

  • nevertrusta3sum

    Are you not paying attention you d-bag Fed shill agent. Americans want a gold/silver standard back. The people know they were swindled, and it all happened less than a hundred years ago. They want what is rightfully theirs, that was stolen.

    “How would these new currencies be truly independent competition for the
    dollar without their issuers resorting to artificial monetary supply
    manipulation as the fed does?”

    If America changes its banking policy the world will follow suit. That seems incredibly more independent than the system in place (where the world bank doesn’t control the world with a small hand full of other people). I’m just waiting for the NWO to try and make another power grab/if, and when it does happen ( the fall of the dollar/Implementation of the Amero).

    Don’t give me that “ohh well the Euro is doing terrible and there’s no way the banks are ever going to try to implement the Amero” hor$e $hit. We all know damn well everything the banks are doing is orchestrated with wallstreet to reel in the control and power.

    “Simply changing the medium of exchange seems to change nothing.” MOAR hor$e $hit.

    We owe nothing to the FED. They owe us back all of the gold they stole from us. We want it all, and we want it now !

  • SovCurtis

    All things can be valued in something else.  These new currencies would be truly independent by NOT resorting to the same machinations as the FED employs. One ounce of silver many wildly fluctuate when the value is described in dollars, but its not the value of silver that fluctuates, but the value of the dollar. One ounce of silver is worth one ounce of silver.

    The issuers will back their new currency however they like. The market will decide which currency is worth having (that is each and every individual will decide whether or not they’d prefer to have Joe’s corn bucks, or Ron Paul’s Gold Dollars).

    You know this conversation is kinda moot, as a competing currency already exists in the US. Its called BitCoin. And even though its technically illegal (as it competes with the FRN/Dollar), there is nothing ANY government can do about it.

  • Timinator257

    I really hope Dr Paul wins the primary so there’s no need to go down the 3rd party road. His biggest challenge is being perceived as an isolationist when in reality he’s a non-interventionist.

  • Timinator257

    I really hope Dr Paul wins the primary so there’s no need to go down the 3rd party road. His biggest challenge is being perceived as an isolationist when in reality he’s a non-interventionist.

  • Heath
  • Heath
  • DeepCough

    That’s why, to show how so not gay the GOP is, they’re gonna vote for Mitt Romney, because he doesn’t wear gay cowboy jackets like Rick Perry does.

  • SovCurtis

    Please, you’re not going to convince anyone by insulting them and calling them names. Mysophobe is genuinely interested in rational discussion on the topic, not mud slinging.

  • Mysophobe

    Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of alternate mediums of exchange like bit coin, but if bit coins can be exchanged for dollars and vice-versa, what is the real difference? How do you convince a court of law that a debt owed to you in the form of some made up currency has any tangible value without invoking a dollar amount? For that matter, how do you convince anyone that it is anything other than a grocery coupon without the institutions to back it up? Money isn’t as simple as the value it represents or what it can be exchanged for. It’s a contract between you, the issuer and the other bearers that is enforceable by law. I agree that currency with intrinsic value is an option that avoids most of these pitfalls, but creates an entirely new set of problems due to it’s physical nature and impossibility to easily transport or transfer electronically. Not to mention, we’d all have to become experts in metallurgy to avoid being swindled by counterfeiters. I just don’t see the need to reinvent the wheel here.

  • Mysophobe

    Edit: I did me some reading up on bitcoin, whereas my earlier comment was based on a cursory understanding of the technology. I understand that bitcoins have been on a steady deflationary climb for some time, and that the total volume is algorithmically limited at 21 million units. I’m curious how the value of bitcoins has tracked the value of a real asset like say, gold. Let’s say I resigned myself to only make transactions in bitcoins. If I’d bought gold with a bunch of bitcoins back in June when they had little value, and now wanted to exchange that same gold for a handful of today’s vastly more valuable bitcoins, I’d be taking a huge bitcoin loss, correct? I know that the gold appreciated in dollars in that same time, but it depreciated drastically in bitcoins. I would have done much better just holding on to my bitcoins in the first place. I know it’s in it’s infancy, but from what I’ve read the combination of a self limiting supply and infinite divisibility makes this stuff great for hoarding. Not so much for buying stuff.

  • Mysophobe

    Triangulation.

  • Nolan

    Ron Paul or Bust!

  • Mogley71

    theres a bullet somewhere in a CIA warehouse with Pauls name on it

  • Shaneakaplaya

    Ron Paul is to be simply put the only one for America right now not Obama.

  • Ceausescu

    Very good point BuzzCoastin. I don’t always agree with you, but I strongly support you on this matter.

  • Anonymous

    This is why I joined this site. The mainstream media endorse
    people THEY want as president, that’s why the Republican primaries are more
    popular this year. I remember reading in a section of the Southtown Star
    newspaper called Speak Out, where this woman was saying “the media is
    making us vote for the people THEY want”. I can honestly agree with that.
    You still have your voting rights, surprisingly, but it defeats the whole
    purpose of having them if you’re being told who to vote for.

    Another thing I want to mention is, many people assume that this country has a
    two-party political system. Here’s the truth about that, it does not say that
    anywhere in the constitution, because there were no parties at the time. The
    Republican and Democratic parties were only political ideas during that era.
    However, historians and political scientists have made the two into a two-party
    system, because the two dominated throughout American history. Yet look at them
    now, Republicans favor these corporations that have attempted to enslave us,
    they care more about the rich and themselves than they do about the middle and
    struggling class, they cause a whole bunch of wars, etc. The Democrats are just
    career politicians who say they care about you, when really they don’t. You
    rarely ever hear of any third party politician. Because the Republicans and
    Democrats have screwed the voters over for the few decades, it would be nice to
    see a third party politician win the presidential election. Yet with corporate
    media deciding who’s popular and who’s not, Republicans and Democrats are the
    only people you’ll hear about.

    Here’s another thing that I find useless, race-based votes. (Before I say the following, I don’t want to offend any Blacks or Hispanics.) I noticed that Blacks and Hispanics usually vote for someone of the same ethnicity, because they want themselves feel important, and think they’re going to help them. That’s why there’s the Black vote and the Latino vote. Minorities don’t care about a politician’s values or plans for office, all they care about is the politician’s race. That’s why people got all excited when Obama was named “the first Black president”. There’s something people don’t seem to realize. Because there’s so many career politicians these days, they’re going to screw everyone over, regardless of race. And there is no such thing as the “Black vote”, “White vote”, “Asian vote”, etc, there’s just “votes”. The only race involved is Human.

  • http://twitter.com/prosperhappily Robert S

    Ron Paul will not be the Republican nominee.  And, I say that as a big fan of his.

      Liberals are not ready to give up their demands for other people’s money.  Conservatives are not ready to give up their desire to impose their interpretaton of Christianity on eveyone else.  Crony capitalists have no intention of giving up their ride on the gravy train.