Can someone please explain to me what appeal Fred Thompson has to conservatives? I’ve heard some people out there salivating at the idea of Fred running for president, and I don’t really see anything about him that appeals to me. My impression is that he’s a cookie-cutter conservative Republican, in Ronald Regan sense, but I don’t see much that distinguishes him from anyone else.
Of course, he was the man in The Hunt for Red October.
I can’t believe what little coverage Ron Paul is getting in the “mainstream press”. Running for political office seems to be a chicken and egg game, where the media ends up deciding who is viable. Think about it:
The press only cover “viable” candidates.
Viable candidates are those who poll well.
Candidates can only poll well if the electorate are aware of the them.
The electorate only know about people whom the press cover.
When people are polled, they choose a candidate they know about.
Lather, rinse, and repeat.
Thankfully, the Ron Paul campaign, like the Howard Dean campaign during the 2004 election, is working as a true grassroots campaign, despite the lack of coverage. Now, the numbers are showing it! According the campaign fundraising disclosures, the Ron Paul campaign has raised more money than the McCain campaign, this puts him at number three amongst the Republican candidates, although he is admittedly well behind the Romney and Giuliani.
I was talking to a friend of mine who made a very interesting comment about the people where he grew up in western Pennsylvania. He said that the people out there tend to want to support the winner. It’s almost like betting on horses… their goal is to go in and vote for the person they think is going to win. I don’t think this thinking is limited to Western PA. Once you wrap your head around the recursiveness of this thinking, you start to see how much influence the media has in who gets elected in this country. If the media projects an idea that a person like Paul can’t win, people will conclude he can’t win, and end up not voting for him.
A meetup group has been formed in Chester County to support Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. The Chester County Meetup Group currently has 20 members, and is growing pretty quickly. The neat thing about the meetups is that they’re totally grassroots in their organization. People in different areas start their own groups, to get the word out in their communities. The Chester County group has plans to meet on the fourth Wednesday of every month in Glenmoore.
Ron Paul aside, next year’s presidential election looks like it’s shaping up to be a extremely pathetic in terms of who will be on the ballot. From the RINO to the suit, from the semi-liberal to the actor, it’s shaping up to be real circus.
What really scares me, though, is not the parade of names trying to one-up each other in the primaries, but, looking past that, to the general election, and the principles that conservative Christians are going to be selling down the river.
I’m seriously considering putting in an order for Ron Paul Signs, (you can see them on display here). However, they’re running for $165 for a lot of 100 on Ebay, so I may need to wait until I get my allowance next month. Once I do pick them up, I’ll let you all know, so you can swing by and pick up your own sign.
P.S. If anyone is interesting in helping defray the costs, let me know in the comments.
I know, I know. I just got back from a Tokyo, spent a day soaking in an onsen, watched the sun come up in a shouchu bar, and watched the yokozuna get beat during the summer sumo tournament in Ryogoku, and here I am posting more Ron Paul videos.
Apparently, while I was gone, Ron Paul gave Rudy G a bit of a high school world history lesson during one of the debates. Afterwards, Bill Mahar invited Dr. Paul onto his show to go into more details.
One comment before the show. About two months ago, Bill Mahar had Ron Paul on his show very quickly, and he dismissed Dr. Paul as a neo-confederate nut. During his introduction, I think Bill Maher was uncharacteristically conciliatory.
The NH Institute of Politics announces that the Republican presidential debate will take place on June 5, 2007, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. “Sponsored by CNN, WMUR-TV and the New Hampshire Union Leader, the debate will include every major republican candidate currently running for president: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Sens. John McCain and Sam Brownback, Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Govs. Mitt Romney and Jim Gilmore, and Congressmen Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter.”
Here’s a youtube video produced by the Ron Paul folks that show some highlights from the recent debate on MSNBC, plus some endorsements from folks like Pat Buchanan.
And here’s the comments from the McLaughlin group:
You need to listen to these comments by presidential hopeful, Rudolph Giuliani, to a New York ferret advocate. Worse than displaying his sheer idiocy, his rant shows how this guy thinks. In 1999, Mr. Giuliani passed a law banning ferrets in New York City.
Now, I’m not really an animal guy. However, as long as your dog, cat, or pot-bellied pig stays out of my yard and doesn’t keep me awake at night, I will fight for your right to own whatever pet you want. Apparently, since Mr. Giuliani does not see any benefits to New Yorkers owning ferrets, therefore, there should be a law banning them.
Do you really want a guy like this to be president? Anything legal that you do now will be subject to Mr. Giuliani’s “sanity test”. If it doesn’t make sense to him, he might just pass a law banning it.
A debate between the Republican presidential candidates will be shown on MSNBC tonight. Here’s the list of candidates who will be participating tonight:
Sam Brownback
Jim Gilmore
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Tommy Thompson
There’s rumors that seven of the ten candidates are in danger of not being invited to the next debate. Apparently, MSNBC has set the polling cutoff at 1%, and only three men, Giuliani, McCain, and Romney, are the only candidates consistently polling at that level.
Here’s hoping that Ron Paul presents himself well tonight, and is invited to that later debates. As I’ve said before, he’s the one candidate who I think can honestly debate the issues.
I hate to be opportunistic regarding the recent massacre (there really isn’t a better word) at Virginia Tech yesterday, but since the gun control crowd has already started beating their drums, I thought that it would appropriate to point out that this tragedy proves exactly why gun control is a bad thing.
I realize it’s early in the election campaign, but I’m already throwing in my endorsement. Actually, my endorsement was given before Ron Paul even announced his candidacy. The Congressman from Texas is an oddity amongst his Republican peers, since he actually votes according to the conservative, libertarian values that those aforementioned peers merely give lip service.
Libertarians usually vote for Republicans, who promise to hold down taxes, spending and regulation. But in the past six years of Republican control in Washington, federal spending has skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the Republican Party has become more dominated by the religious right, and the Bush administration has mired the country in a seemingly endless war in Iraq.
My prediction is that the Republicans are going to lose both houses today. And they’re going to scratch their heads wondering why. I’ll explain why:
The failure of Congress to fulfill their Constitutional responsibility for oversight of the Iraq “war”, and instead try to distance themselves from Bush and blaming him for the Iraq policy.
The finger pointing at Democrats whenever people asked Republicans what the plan for Iraq was, saying “Well they don’t have a plan either.”
The federal budget skyrocketing since Bush came into office.
Calling Democrats “Tax and Spend”, while implementing a “Spend but Don’t Tax” policy, greatly increasing the federal deficit.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday. When Specter was on the radio pitching for Santorum, he was lamenting the fact that the people of Pennsylvania are punishing Santorum over an unpopular war. He ridiculed this idea, since the Senate wasn’t to blame for the war… it was Bush and the rest of the executive branch.
It’s sad how many elected officials forget that they are responsible for war… it’s in the Constitution.
It’s very difficult for us real conservatives nowadays. I was listening to Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Spector on the radio the other day. Santorum is in a tough fight right now with Bob Casey, and Casey has taken a rather large lead in the polls. Now, personally, I have little reason to believe that this is due to anything positive about Casey, but more because people are pissed off at Santorum.
Now, granted, Santorum has some conservative leanings… he puts on a good act. But, as I’ve pointed out over and over, he (and most of the other Republicans) seem to have forgotten what it means to be a conservative. Remember when conservatives were for smaller government? Somehow, the Republicans have turned from the conservative party into the fascist party.
Anyway, apparently this guy, Tony Kondaks, called into Sean Hannity’s show the other day. Hannity kept cutting him off, and he didn’t get a chance to make his point, so the Lew Rockwell site (a true bastion of conservatism on the Internets), gave Kondaks an opportunity to truly get his thoughts out there.