Ron Paul: The Real "Rock Star" of the Right

Who would believe that the candidate generating buzz and excitement on the 2008 Republican presidential campaign trail is a seventy-two year old medical doctor from a small town in Texas?

Who would believe that a libertarian who is calling for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from not only Iraq but from all of the Middle East has a large following among younger voters?

Who would believe that a man calling for a return to the gold standard and who favors no entangling alliances would be raising a good deal of money on the Internet?

Is Congressman Ron Paul surprised by his new popularity?

When I asked him that question before he spoke to a crowd of nearly 200 people at my Center on Politics and Foreign Relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS on September 12th, he replied, "I am a little bit surprised by my popularity. I was skeptical about running for president at first."

Why do people drive five hours to hear him speak as they did for his speech at Johns Hopkins and why do people hand him books on the gold standard to autograph?

Congressman Paul says, "Young people like my non-intervention policy and they like my personal liberty views as well."

The native of Pittsburgh who served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s told me "I am not a pacifist".

But, he is a believer in non-intervention by America abroad. "Intervention is not beneficial to us," he said in our interview.

Rep. Paul is a strong believer in "a return to constitutional principles" and wouldn't ever go to war unless Congress voted a declaration of war in the future.

The Texas Congressman speaks his mind and has great faith in his views. In addition to his anti-war views it seems as if he is developing a strong group of supporters who see him as honest and true to his principles.

Some of his views make sense and some of them seem to be nonsense. His assertion that "If we hadn't had troops in the Middle East for the last 50 years terrorists wouldn't have attacked us on 9-11" is a preposterous statement.

He also had some suggestions for arming civilians to capture Bin Laden that seemed a bit unusual to say the least.

Rep. Paul is causing a stir in the 2008 presidential race and he is raising money. His chances of winning the Republican nomination are nil but perhaps with his strong and vocal group of supporters he might run as an Independent candidate in 2008 although he says he will not.

His old-fashioned views which he says are "Old, Old Right positions of the 1950s" are attracting a crowd of supporters that run the spectrum from liberal Democrats to anti-war Independents to people who just like his honesty and anti-intervention views.

As he says, "You don't have to be warmongers to be conservative".

He may not be an enigma. He may not be your average Republican candidate for president. He may not be saying anything that is particularly new or radical.

But, Congressman Paul is certainly adding some needed excitement to the 2008 presidential race. In my last column I said Americans are looking for excitement in their presidential candidates. To his many hardcore supporters the Texas doctor is providing that excitement.

I was astonished at the intensity of his supporters in our audience. I was amazed at their lengthy emails to me saying what a breath of fresh air he is in the presidential race.

So more power to the honest, anti-war, anti-intervention, pro-gold standard, pro-Constitution candidate from Texas who states, "It is not my responsibility as president to attack other countries".

He has struck a nerve and has found support among some voters looking for answers to our problems. He seems like a gentleman who, speaks sense and also nonsense, while attempting to solve the problems of our day.

Congressman Paul is certainly interesting, entertaining and a student of history. I look forward to following his comments along the campaign trail.

Comments

[Galvestonians for Dr. Ron Paul]

We are constituents of Ron Paul.
We are also democrats, along with 65 percent of his district, yet he is elected every time he runs.

He does not accept any paid junkets.
He is not a member of the congressional retirement program.
All of his kids put themselves through college without any of his help, no scholarships could be accepted(and there were many) and they were not allowed to borrow...They worked and put themselves through, all 5 of them.
He returns a portion of our (Tx-14th) yearly budget back to the treasury, every year he has been in the seat.
He has NEVER asked for or accepted an earmark. NEVER.
(this does upset some of his constituents, but in the end we get over it and he has always been overwhelmingly re-elected).
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted to raise the congress salary.
He is by far the most honorable and trustworthy man in the congress today, even amongst his peers in Congress.
Notice how other members never have anything bad to say about Ron Paul?
All they do is laugh at him. They can laugh all they want, because we know the real deal.
He is the most clear on all positions then any other candidate.
Free and open internet.
Set the million or so people behind bars on meaningless drug charges, free and make marijuana legal.
Oh yea, I forgot.
He would also bring the troops home, NOW...
No war with Iran.
The list goes on and on.

Dont be afraid of change, because change is exactly what we need.
We have known about Ron Paul for quite some time. I think it would be in everyones best interest to visit his website and look it over.

Very respectful man, indeed.

[Ben]

Nice to see something about Ron Paul on Huffpo, I was beginning to think he didn't exist...

[cduffield]

Please, Dennis K is a little communist. Stop pairing him with Ron Paul who is the exact opposite.

[kyliepoo]

Thanks, I was just going to say something..

[smharmon1]

With all due respect, Mr. Guttman, you are dismissing Paul's logical and well supported "assertion" about terrorists attacking us on 9/11 because of our occupation of the Middle East by using another assertion: that this reason is preposterous. Your assertion requires one to deny historical principles of cause and effect. On what do you base your assertion?

As for your statement on the "unusual idea of arming civilians to capture Bin Laden," is it that unusual? Look at Iraq today--over 100,000 heavily armed civilian contractors are carrying out security operations.

I don't fault your piece. But it would have been helpful to cover Paul's long question and answer session with the audience. There were many excellent questions, and Paul's responses were on the mark. You might have noted that, compared to the canned answers we are getting from the mainstream candidates, Ron Paul's engagement was quite "unusual."

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

Well these days seeing a Republican saying ANYTHING that makes sense is something that belongs in Fortean Times rather than Time magazine.

Heck, I'd drive five hours to see a flying saucer or rain of fish wouldn't you?

[dora rice]

Bin Laden and his followers did object to american troops on Saudi Soil long before 9/11.
This should have been a warning to us and we should have been more alert for things to come.

[mickrussom]

Ron Paul, please keep up the good efforts. Even though your policies are available online on youtube and http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/ and you've been saying and doing the same thing for 20+ years, there are those who simply don't take the time to read your views. We will work hard to try and educate those who would use bad words against you without even bothering to look up your policy.

The craziest thing of all is that Ron Paul is the ONLY guy up there today that even states ALL of his policy!

People like mystery meat at Taco Bell over a nice Angus Steak? Strange.

[aksmith]

I sure hope you are more careful about what you say when you teach those thirsting young minds at Johns Hopkins.

Many have taken you to task for this:

His assertion that "If we hadn't had troops in the Middle East for the last 50 years terrorists wouldn't have attacked us on 9-11" is a preposterous statement.

Clearly, you have no idea if it's preposterous. It may not be correct, but if you've studied what Kermit Roosevelt and the CIA did to Mossadegh and what we did to help Saddam fight Iran in the 80s. And how we are drumming up a war by inuendo now, you'd have to take this rather serious man much more seriously. It's as if the Shah and his secret police never happened according to you. People in the Middle East may not be as smart as you, but their attention span is certainly longer. Their memories too.

Then you said this:
He also had some suggestions for arming civilians to capture Bin Laden that seemed a bit unusual to say the least.

Ahem, this is so unusual that George Bush and his administration have already tried a milder version of it. Remember the 25 and 50 million dollar government bounties on Saddam and Osama? The only difference is that Ron Paul wanted to make it a billion, and actually, the bigger number would have encouraged more people to try to knock them off. And afterall, that was the point, wasn't it? It must be your memory problem again. I understand ginko works wonders. A.K. Smith

[Westmiller]

When you put a statement in quotation marks, you had best have a source. There is no such reference for the "preposterous statement" you cite.
Ron Paul never said it.
It was a characterization of his comments made by Rudy and a FoxNews commentator.
You can have your own opinion, but you can't have your own facts.

[godlessclif]

Fox News always makes up their own facts.
Fox commentator Chris Mathews put those words in his mouth eliminating the weather bureau and the patent office. Paul never said that. He would eliminate the Department of Education, because he thinks that is a local issue.

[RemyMartin]

"In a world where deceit is universal, truth is revolutionary." ~ George Orwell 1984

[godlessclif]

I like that one.

[RemyMartin]

Thank you Mr. Guttman for giving Dr. Ron Paul the opportunity to express his views at your Center on Politics and Foreign Relations,at the Johns Hopkins SAIS. The event was done very professionally. I commend you on your effort in bringing this enlightening forum to those who can appreciate freedom of ideas and speech.It gave the students as well as others from the general public a chance to hear and meet a serious and truly intellectual presidential candidate who has been disrespectfully belittled and misrepresented from the mainstream media.
Regardless of people's opinion of him, Ron Paul, like all the other presidential candidates deserves to be heard.
We the People will have to make a serious decision come November 2008 in picking a LEADER for the most power executive position in the country - the President of the United States of America. WE THE PEOPLE are ACCOUNTABLE for that decision. Who can we TRUST to be the next leader of our nation that stands for FREEDOM?

Many of us are having difficulty in decerning truth from lies, fact from misinformation. We can't figure out the truth if certain pertinent information helpful in making important decisions are somehow inaccessable to us.
The second and third tier candidates are just as deserving to be heard as the top tier in order to help us make a more informed decision.

Mr. Guttman you did good!

[bethinCary]

The media is trying to portray him as a crackpot.
they are trying to dredge past history up.

I just believe he is-genuinely-who he is.
I like him for that.
I'm an anti-war Dem-so if there's an anti-war GOPer, I'm all for them too.

[Doofus]

If you're pro-crackpot, anti-whatever, there is only one way, the RepoDemo way...

Paul/Kucinich - Tag Team 2008 - They Are The Man!

[Pyrum]

Glad you've started putting Paul's name in the president's spot where it belongs, instead of V.P.!

[acudoc]

"Some of his views make sense and some of them seem to be nonsense. His assertion that 'If we hadn't had troops in the Middle East for the last 50 years terrorists wouldn't have attacked us on 9-11 is a preposterous statement."

Yeah, it's so preposterous it's true! But that would have meant not supporting Israel at every turn, and 'conicidentally' not using our military might to ensure the flow of oil. The Israelis have more or less taken over all of Palestine, with the aid of the United States, and Israel has become in effect the 51st State in terms of its influence on American foreign policy. The Israelis have succeeded in displacing an entire people and creating a Jewish/Zionist Theocracy/Democracy on earth that is a hornet's nest for everyone in the entire region. America, I hate to tell you this but Israel is not our problem! It is a problem engendered by the so-called Chosen People, and they had better solve it creatively because they are a very small state in a sea of Arabs who mostly dislike them for their actions against the Palestinian people. Demographics are against them. Our unqualified and uncritical support of this state that was essentially created by the world powers at the end of WWII (by what right of intervention?) has created the blowback that resulted in 9-11 and to which Ron Paul alludes. Not a preposterous viewpoint at all, just an alternative take on the situation in the Middle East that is not pursued by the MSM, which reiterates the officially sanctioned version that only ensures that our sons and daughters get the opportunity to continue dying in this region for the foreseeable future.

[dryfactoidobotanoid]

http://blog.ronpaul2008.com/ron_paul_2008/2007/08/ron-paul-in-the.html
"In comparing results head-to-head, Congressman Paul has blown away most of the field, defeating Rudy Giuliani in 15 of the 17 polls and John McCain in 15 of the 16 polls."

[Doofus]

Except in Texas...

Go Duncan ('Who?') Hunter!

Rep. Duncan Hunter wins Texas Republican straw poll - Sep 1, 2007
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter scored a symbolic victory on Saturday, winning a low-turnout Texas straw poll that drew only a few second-tier candidates in the White House race.

Hunter, a California congressman, whose big issues are border security and strong national defense, took about 41 percent of the 1,300 votes cast.

Former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson, who will formally launch his White House run next week, came second with about 20 percent of the vote. Texas Congressman Ron Paul was third with just under 17 percent of the vote. ...

[lucid]

Yes Duncan spent several weeks and a fist full of money and deservedly won the Texas straw poll.

What I would point out to you is that across the nation the only 3 candidates that are having consist success are: F. Thompson, M. Romney, and Ron Paul.

I'd rather see strong consistant success than occasional success.

[Galvestonians for Dr. Ron Paul]

Texas is big oil, Ron Paul is not.

[Wildboar]

You said "Some of his views make sense and some of them seem to be nonsense. His assertion that "If we hadn't had troops in the Middle East for the last 50 years terrorists wouldn't have attacked us on 9-11" is a preposterous statement."

How about this?

If we hadn't been suckered into supporting Europe in its war with the the Moslems back in 1815 (Barbary Wars) terrorists wouldn't have attacked us on 9-11.

Study your history, Bobby. It's a simple to understand concept called REVENGE.