True Colors

Ron Paul says some things that make sense BUT at the GOP debate on 9/12/11 he really let his true colors come out.   (I don't know whether his statistics about the rate that Al-Queda is attacking "American interests" are accurate or not)     He was apparently trying to slide thru with the same song he has for years that "we shouldn't be spending so much money on wars overseas" and Sen. Rick Santorum held Ron Paul's feet to the fire.   You can see in the clip below that he receives a smattering of applause on his point that "how would we feel if China occupied our cities?" but keep watching.  Santorum starts at about 1:55.    And if you listen closely to Paul in his rebuttal of Santorum, he misquotes what Santorum said.   Santorum said nothing about "the whole Muslim world" - strawman argument (busted).   I also get the feeling from this video that Ron Paul is NO friend of Israel.

Why is Ron Paul still running?

Throughout this campaign the MSM (main stream media) have paid much attention to the Democratic primaries but have only paid lip service to the GOP primaries (and then only when they had to).

I could not have predicted the way this thing was going to go. And the only thing about this whole mess that I would have felt comfortable predicting a year ago has not happened. I agree with a lot that Ron Paul says but I have never felt that the Republican party would get behind a candidate that was so openly advocating a "cut and run" approach to Iraq. Honestly, I was surprised that Fred Thompson dropped out before Ron Paul. I have continued to be surprised that "major" candidates have dropped out (Guiliani and the suspension of Romney's campaign, etc.) while Ron Paul has stuck it out.

More than once I have thought "what is this guy doing?". Well, it turns out that Senator Paul issued a statement that answered my question. I found the statement today (Feb 9) on a site listing candidate contribution information. From thegreenpapers.com : (emphasis mine)

[Senator Paul] Announced he was scaling down campaign on 8 February 2008. "With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no 3rd party run. I do not denigrate third parties—just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican. I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen."

As of today (February 9) Senator Paul has 14 delegates. I don't know what (if any) pull that will give him at the convention but I respect that he is standing by his ideology. I wish Senator Paul continued success in his political career.

The Big Game

Posted just minutes ago, this article gives the thrilling details. (Giants Upset Patriots To Win Super Bowl) An ad displayed on the page when I viewed the article said "Are the Patriots the Best NFL team of All Time?" (i'm gonna guess they get quite a few "NO" votes :-)

Now on to the big game.

Guiliani endorsed McCain (no big surprise).

Schwarzenegger endorsed Romney (and his wife endorsed Obama :-)

Romney says Huckabee should drop out.

Huckabee says Romney should drop out.

The mainstream media (and many talk radio hosts) are acting like each side only has two horses in the race.

So what is the problem, you ask? The problem is this - if a political liberal wants someone to vote for, they have, at the very least, two candidates that fit the description - Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama (they may have more - stay with me).

A political conservative (supposedly) has all the candidates from the right side of the aisle (GOP) to choose from; unfortunately this is just not true. Let me explain.

McCain - Now as much as I hate to make an apparent "ad hominen" argument - the New York Times is not about to endorse a true conservative.

Romney - You can credit "conservative" Governor Romney for recognized same-sex marriages in Massachusetts. Several constitution authorities state that Romney "exercised illegal legislative authority" by his actions in 2003. Do true conservatives really want a "legislative loose cannon" representing us in the White House? I don't think so.

Huckabee - There are 700,000 physicians in the US and the number of accidental deaths caused by them per year is 120,000, making the accidental death rate per physician 17%. Using the same logic, there are about 80 million gun owners, and the number of accidental gun deaths per year among all age groups is 1,500. The same calculation reveals the number of accidental deaths per gun owner to be 0.00188%. In other words, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 more times more dangerous than gun owners. Yet, I hear no one suggesting we ban doctors.
Source: From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.126-127 Jan 4, 2007
While I think this quote from Huckabee's book makes a great point about the 2nd Amendment, it might cost him the "physician" voting block :-)

Paul - While Dr Paul claims to be a strict constitutionalist, his views on the War on Terror just seem to be a "cut and run" strategy. The truth is that, good or bad, we are now in Iraq and we have to make sure the region is stable before we pull out.