FALL-OUT FROM: Could I have been WRONG about Ron Paul

Yesterday, I wrote a little post on how I may have been wrong in dismissing and outright criticising Ron Paul as a viable Republican candidate and Presidential contender. It was entitled "Could I Have Been WRONG about Ron Paul?"

I stressed "might" and that I was just beginning to really dig into Dr. Paul's positions, but at a gut level, I just LIKED him.

I have two humble little blogs which I use as an outlet to discuss things I like, things I dislike, and to generally blow off stress. I have a lot of ads on my blogs and to date I've earned $1. I put them up more as decoration than anything else.

I never envisioned them drawing any type of mass response nor was it ever my intent. Blogging was a hobby I enjoyed and as I view the good and the bad in the world to today, it gave me some satisfaction that somewhere on Google, at least my opinions were at least present.

Much to my shock and amazement, This article receive over 7400 Page Views, over 800 "diggs" at DIGG.com, and over 232 comments at DIGG.com. This morning, I found an additional 35 comments waiting for posting on Anyone But Hillary in 2008!!!

That sets an all-time record for either of my blogs! My post was also "buried" at DIGG.com meaning more people who read it gave Ron Paul (and me) a thumbs down than the 800+ who gave it a thumbs up.

It just goes to show you what a polarizing figure Ron Paul has become and why I now find him "interesting". I'll keep looking into him and you will see more posts about him, but rest assured, I am no "shill" for Ron Paul, as some on DIGG asserted.I think my article makes that clear to all but the most thick-headed as well as the fact I have been dismissive of Ron Paul in the past. I even wrote a post "Now is NOT the time for Ron Paul" which got me criticism from the pro-Ron Paul people....but NOTHING like what I got with this post from the anti-Ron Paul crowd.

And in reading all the comments and comments to other pro-Ron Paul posts, I discovered something else. Basically two groups of people are commenting (and voting): those who support Ron Paul and those that are AFRAID of Ron Paul.

Another plus for the Ron Paul camp: fear is generally a synonym for ignorance (except when it comes to Hillary).

And thank you Ron Paul supporters for your kindness and suggestions on where to look for research. I was tempted to delete one comment that used the f-word a couple of times, but I believe in free speech, even when it makes a point in a vulgar way.

You'll see more posts from me on Dr. Paul in the future. I'm not going to agree with everything he says, but he's doing a good job of winning me over! By the way, there the heck did you come up with a blimp? I thought Blimps R Us went out of business years ago. :-)

I enjoy good, reasoned, civil conversation. I certainly got that and a lot more yesterday! And remember, vote for ANYONE (but maybe give Ron Paul a real hard look) BUT HILLARY in 2008!

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Could I have been WRONG about Ron Paul?

You've probably noticed a lack of posts on this blog compared to my other blog, The Unloading Zone. It's not because I don't have the time; it's just that this campaign to date has been so lackluster, so scripted, so.......boring.

I write about what interests me and so far, very little has interested me in the 2008 Presidential Race. I anticipated a little heat after the first of the year and, after all, the election is about 11 months away. There will be plenty to write about later on. Or so I thought.

One thing I have done is been rather dismissive of Dr. Ron Paul, Republican/Libertarian from Texas. Not only on this blog, but especially in the comments section on Digg.com which these days seems nothing more than a Gen X platform for Dr. Paul.

I saw him as a latter-day Ross Perot; a spoiler who would pull enough Republican votes to hand the White House to Hillary. And I am SOLIDLY against anything or anyone who could hand her the Presidency. My plan: Texas has open primaries so I would vote (for the first time in my life) as a Democrat, pick Obama or whomever else was the strongest candidate next to Hillary, and then vote for the Republican, whomever THAT is in the general election. Holding my nose while I vote in the general election won't be enough: I planned on wearing a gas mask.

So I'm surfing the political news looking for something to write about this morning. Do I REALLY want to get into the whole "whose the best Christian" thing with Huckabee and Romney? Has Rudy gotten into ANOTHER scandal? Is Mike Huckabee's "lets isolate AIDS patients" position political suicide, a ticket to the White House, or just a pathetic bid for airtime? I'm interested......NOT. In fact, none of the Republican front-runners excite me in the least or even interest me.

On the Democrat side, Obama, despite his appeal to me as a Hillary-Killer, is really just a clone of her on Universal Healthcare and Education. Nothing exciting to talk about there. And Hillary hasn't done anything shocking enough to justify a post the past few days. And who can even remember who the other Democrats are. I guess I'll go back to my other blog where I am having some fun.

And then I noticed someone (predictably on DIGG) had posted something about a Newsweek interview video with Ron Paul on the Second Amendment. That caught my eye. I am a fervent supporter of the Constitution and the Second Amendment has been trampled on more than the other nine. I also like guns. I own guns. I carry a gun when I go out. (yes, I have a concealed handgun license). So, despite my fatigue with the Ron DIGG Paul crowd, I decided to watch the video. Then I watched the other two videos there: one on Israel and it's right to exist; the other on getting rid of the IRS. And you know what? I found myself LIKING Ron Paul!

It wasn't the positions he took, per se.....these were short videos. I liked how he handled himself. I liked the confidence in his positions he exhibited. I liked his honesty. I particularly liked the way he handled the reporter when he tried to "trap" Dr. Paul. No blustering, no double-speak. He just considered for a second and gave an answer. He could have obfuscated, he could have bobbed and weaved, but he didn't. And he's the first politician I've seen since Ronald Reagan who seemed very comfortable with himself.

Obama "quit" smoking after criticism from his handlers. If Dr. Paul smoked (I don't believe he does), he would have lit up a cigarette on camera, acknowledged the health hazards, and basically said "this is who I am". I'll say it again, I found myself LIKING Ron Paul.

But liking him and seeing him elected are too different things. I originally stopped looking at his positions too closely after I heard he wanted to abolish the IRS and reduce the size of government by 50%. This was just another Libertarian in Republican clothes, I thought. Politicians come and go but bureaucracies are forever.

I went back to Dr. Paul's website this morning and REALLY read his positions, not just the little teaser paragraphs that end with a hyperlink to "details". Do I think he's going to be able to reduce the size of government by 50%? No, the Congress and the bureaucrats won't let that happen. But I found myself agreeing with him more than I disagreed. I found his positions more plausible than the soundbites of them would indicate. And I just liked the guy!

I'm not coming out with an endorsement based on insomnia and web surfing, but I am going to read more about Ron Paul and I am going stop dumping on him as a spoiler. If he can get enough airtime and enough debate time, (I can't believe I'm going to say this) he MAY BE ELECTABLE, even against Hillary!

So as a cynical baby boomer who has had his heart broken too many times by the Republicans, I will say that I now find Dr. Paul "interesting" and plan to do a lot more research on him and his positions. Before the DIGG servers explode, let me say that I am not changing the name of my blog: Defeating Hillary Clinton is critical to the survival of America, I truly believe that. She is the antithesis of Ron Paul. Under Hillary, we would just be a client state of the United Nations.
But I like Ron Paul and I'm going to keep up on him.

And who knows, I have two spaces on my lawn I reserve for political signs. One is going to Maher Maso, who is running for Mayor of Frisco, TX (like anyone outside of Frisco cares). But the other spot doesn't have a name on it. Wouldn't it be something if a Ron Paul for President sign ended up there........

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Karl Rove and Hillary Clinton Make Strange Bedfellows

I would be hard-pressed to think of two people so unlikely to share the same view on a controversial and polarizing issue as Karl Rove, the evil genius behind George W. Bush's election and re-election, and Hillary Clinton, self-serving 1960's left-over. Not only do they share the same view, but their view is at the far left of the political spectrum.

Their comments were made in two different venues and under very different circumstances. Yet you could attribute Hillary's comments to Rove and visa-versa and no one would know the difference. The topic was Illegal Immigration.

For Rove, the venue was the East Texas Immigration Summit sponsored by Texas Employers for Immigration Reform.

For Hillary, the event less than a week after Rove's comments was the National Public Radio sponsored debate among the Democrat contenders.

In an interview at the Summit with the Houston Chronicle, Rove said the following "one out of 20 workers in America is here illegally.....If you think we can take 5% of our workforce and throw them out, your kidding yourself. We would suffer serious economic damage. There is a moral cost. There's a practical cost."

During the NPR debate, when pressed for a straight answer, Hillary finally relented and said “What we’re looking at here is 12 to 14 million people — they live in our neighborhoods, they take care of our elderly, they probably made the beds in the hotels that some of us stayed in last night. They are embedded in our society. If we want to listen to the demagogues and the calls for us to being to round up people and turn every American into a suspicious vigilante, I think we will do graver harm to the fabric of our nation than any kind of person-by-person reporting of someone who might be here illegally.”

Politics really does make strange bedfellows. I just hope they use a condom: those two pools of genes could only produce one offspring: The Anti-Christ.

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