Ron Paul Is Now the Republican Frontrunner
Ron Paul Pulls Into the Lead
The Atlantic notes:
A new poll from Public Policy Polling shows that Ron Paul has taken the lead in the Iowa caucus race, while Newt Gingrich’s support is fading fast. A different Gallup poll shows Gringrich still holding the lead, but slipping, while The New York Times has Paul in the lead as well.
Gingrich has seen his numbers in the PPP poll drop from 27 percent to 14 percent in just three weeks, while his favorability rating is now split at 46 percent for to 47 percent against, the worst of any candidate not named Jon Huntsman.
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Perhaps the most telling secondary question was, “Do you think Newt Gingrich has strong principles?” Only 36 percent say that he does, but for Paul that number was 73 percent.
While the popularity of other candidates has risen and crashed. Paul’s popularity has steadily and consistently risen:
Ron Paul Is Now the Republican Frontrunner
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Why is Mr. Paul so popular?
As I pointed out in September, Americans overwhelmingly want:
• The Federal Reserve to be reined in if not abolished
• The never-ending, open-ended, goalpost-moving wars to stop and the troops to be brought home
• Our liberties to be restored, and the martial law indefinite detention idiocy to be reversed
Paul has consistently championed these three American wishes for three decades. None of the other Republican (or Democratic) candidates are on the right side of history on any of these issues.
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December 20th, 2011 at 6:14 am
Ron Paul’s message goes hand in hand with the economic message of Hernando de Soto. When individual rights and property rights and the recording of such get destroyed we are messing with the ingredients that helped generate our economic prosperity.
December 20th, 2011 at 6:34 am
Ron Paul also supports the OWS, and Tea Party movements, is against the Patriot Act (Trojan Horse in his mind), backs a Gold Standard, supports State rights, rails against the giant banks, despises the bought and paid for politicians and all their lobbyist posse.
It is time to end the two party system.
http://www.americanselect.org
December 20th, 2011 at 7:05 am
Well, there is a lot to like about Ron Paul. But, there is a lot to dislike about him as well. I won’t get into all the likes and dislikes. Because they are a matter of personal preference. And his stands on foreign and domestic policy are part of the public domain. But I will say this.
There is NO WAY the Republican establishment allows someone like Ron Paul to be their standard bearer. That is just not going to happen. He is NOT a Republican. He is a hard core Libertarian. And as such, is completely out of step with main stream Republican Party policy stands and thought. Especially on foreign policy and defense.
If it looks like he is starting to get on a roll, they will do everything possible to bring him down. And I do mean, EVERYTHING. Nothing will be off the table. The reason is as President, he would be completely off the charts and out of control. He would tell the Republican establishment and the Republican power base to go pound sand. And they know it. And as such, almost every Republican mouth piece is saying it would be a disaster for the Republicans if Ron Paul became the nominee.
Nobody really has any clue what he would do if elected. So be careful what you wish for. The end state may not hold much resemblance to what you expected.
December 20th, 2011 at 7:45 am
Does the President have the power to abolish the Fed? It was created by an act of Congress, and presumably, since monetary authority rests with Congress and not the executive, it would take an act of Congress to undo it; the president could not act unilaterally (admittedly, this doe not always stop the president from doing so anyway). But I suppose a Fed-unfriendly president would push Congress for as much restriction on the Fed as he could get. This is a practical problem for a Paul presidency: he’d have a hard time getting his agenda through Congress.
But Paul’s organization has put a lot of effort into Iowa, it remains entirely unclear if he can duplicate that in a larger state. Sure, it would be a disaster for the Republicans if he got nominated, which by itself is almost enough to get me to vote for him in the primary (we have open primaries in this state). He’s beyond consistent and principled; he’s an absolutely unbending ideologue.
December 20th, 2011 at 7:58 am
Presidents are figureheads and show some sway with their veto power. The real problem is congress. The first order of business for the people is to re-create a structure that makes them accountable first to the people then to whomever. The real outrage here is the press. It can only be through collusion that Paul has been ignored. Think about that all day today. Stunning
December 20th, 2011 at 8:05 am
Of course, it is well to remember that, out of the last 5 contested Republican nominating processes (going back to 1980), the Republican Iowa Caucus has “picked” the ultimate party nominee only twice. Past performance is not, of course, indicative of future performance, but the Iowa Caucus does not always determine the nominee. And that is the case as recently as the 2008 caucus, which Huckabee won.
December 20th, 2011 at 8:09 am
Meh, Paul is just the latest GOP candidate whose most important quality seems to be he’s not Mitt Romney. Look at that poll chart and see one wave after another. Now try to convince me that Paul’s peak won’t be followed by the same slide as people take a closer look at him.
December 20th, 2011 at 8:25 am
BR,
looks like someone took your admonition to heart..
“Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.”
willia451 Says: December 20th, 2011 at 7:05 am
one may deign to point such an ‘Individual’ to sites, such as http://www.fallacyfiles.org/ , for some remedial assistance, but…
December 20th, 2011 at 8:47 am
Ron Paul is conservative the luxuriant war machine must be cut by $4000B over the 10 years and the empire less extravagantly patrolled.
Paul’s rise puts shame to HASC Chair McKeon and SASC Minority Lead Kyl who are whining about cutting 15% of the 40% expanded [since the war on the taxpayer for terrorism] war machine.
The bloated war machine is planned to be a $7800B mill stone which McKeon/Kyl whine about losing $1000B!
December 20th, 2011 at 9:17 am
Looks like the Repubs choice is: which noose do you want to put around your neck? They’ve tried at least 5 or 6 already and didn’t find them comfortable and now time is running out.
December 20th, 2011 at 9:28 am
My first reaction to this isn’t that people suddenly are very accepting of Paul’s message…it’s a fringe position to be sure by anyone’s measure. (but at least he’s consistently loony…and no the “majority” of American do NOT want the Federal Reserve “reined in or abolished” because the majority have no idea what the Federal Reserve actually even is or what it does and, last time I checked, it was up to Congress to do that anyhow) It’s that we’re back into “Anyone but Romney” land.
But does anyone else find it interesting now we have instant polling and social media the data is whiplashed one way and the next so that, actually, all these polls are now meaningless? Think about it. Has any poll actually helped pinpoint who is going to take anything on the Republican side? The only thing it’s done is damage because everyone knows that the party is in disarray, no one likes the presumed heir apparent, and no one else they have is electable in a general election who has a shot in hell at any nomination. The “debate” process was clown-vetting, at best, and the more time that goes by, the more we all realize that the entire party is now running toward the cliff tripping over each other on who can now be against something they were for or chasing the lunatic part of the party. It’s as if the Democrats suddenly campaigned on “Everyone just hold hands and sing Kumbaya while we give public assistance to anyone who applies especially illegal aliens!”
This is all just stunning! But what I don’t understand is why anyone is focusing on the Presidency when what we really need to do is vote every one of the people who block bills in Congress out. And, especially, make sure that Boehner isn’t the next Speaker as he’s completely and utterly useless. In another time and place I’d think he was a Communist mole.
December 20th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Paul is worthy of respect if not support. But really, the current field reflects how completely ideologically bankrupt the Grand Ol’ Party has become. It’s been taken over by zealots. And their choice of candidates are corrupted, crazy, and stupid in various degrees. It’s an historically pathetic field.
I won’t be voting for Obama again. But I have no doubt he will be re-elected.
We truly live in times where all the good men are off tending to their own gardens.
December 20th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Gentilemen, may I call to your attention one simple little fact. Come November there will be choice between Obama and one of the Republican challengers. It is possible that we might have a third party attempt that would split the vote and possible assure that Obamawins a second term. The question becomes, “who do you want to be stuck with?’ I do not begrudge Ron Paul his rise in popularity for he may turn out the be the least harmful president given the alternatives.
December 20th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Paul is the most sane of the current (or even the prospective) crop of GOP runners. That’s, however, not really saying much. And then, there’s the interactions that I’ve had with his supporters, which seem to go after me personally, just because I bring up a true point (that they can’t get through their head or are just totally unwilling to accept any criticism of him), which has made sure that I will absolutely refuse to cast any vote for Paul. Or any other libertarian leaning candidate.
I don’t see the current Republican leadership allowing him to actually win the nomination. But then, I do expect that the Tea Party will try to make sure that Romney doesn’t get it either. Which leaves us with ?
I truly doubt the Americans overwhelmingly want to abolish the Fed. I think they overwhelmingly don’t understand what it does in the first place.
I have to agree with number2son
I don’t WANT to vote for Obama again, but I can’t see my voting Republican either, and I refuse to throw away my vote by voting third party. I’d rather just chose “None of the above”.
December 20th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Paul believes in your liberty if you happen to be a white, heterosexual, Christian, man. Otherwise,not so much.