Politics
Ron Paul Continues to Show Momentum in Iowa
Around the State
Ron Paul
Paul’s campaign pointed to an American Research Group poll of likely Iowa caucus participants that finds the Texas congressman locked with Romney for second place with 17 percent -- 5 points behind Gingrich. The poll of 600 likely Republican Iowa caucus voters -- 505 registered Republicans and 95 voters with no party affiliation -- was taken Dec. 8-11 and had a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.
“Our campaign is continuing to make strides in the key early-voting states, especially in Iowa,” insisted Jesse Benton, Paul’s campaign chairman, in response to the ARG poll. “After witnessing packed rallies time and again in Iowa, it is no surprise that we are seeing these encouraging poll numbers.”
While Paul took just less than 10 percent of the vote to take fifth place in the 2008 caucus, his organization appears much better in the Hawkeye State this time out and his team has been running ads hammering Gingrich. Paul took a strong second place in the Iowa Republican straw poll in Ames in August, finishing a whisker behind U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota who has since faded in polls at both the state and national levels.
Paul has been generating momentum among young voters in the Hawkeye State. This past weekend, with 35 percent of the votes cast, Paul won a straw poll held by students of Drake University in Des Moines, followed by Romney with 25 percent and Gingrich in distant third place with 10 percent.
The Lone Star State congressman continues to set up an impressive operation in Iowa, unveiling the support of prominent Sioux City pastor Rev. Mark McGlohon.
“Ron Paul is the only candidate who understands the challenges we face as a nation. We need a man like Dr. Paul to put an end to politics-as-usual and tell the truth even when it is unpopular,” said McGlohon, a former businessman who is now the senior pastor at Bethel Baptist Church. “I believe Dr. Paul is the right person to be president. He is a man of faith and it is his faith that will guide him in leading our country.”
McGlohon is not the only prominent religious conservative to praise Paul this week. Social and religious conservatives remain pivotal in the Iowa Republican caucus and helped Mike Huckabee win in 2008, Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes to do well in the 2000 caucus, and propelled evangelical leader Pat Robertson over then-Vice President George H.W. Bush to finish second in the 1988 caucus.
Ken Connor, who used to lead the Family Research Council and now is with the Center for a Just Society, offered his take on the Republican presidential race on Tuesday and praised Paul. Connor is known to Floridians for leading the state Christian Coalition and for his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1994.
Connor noted that Gingrich currently leads state and national polls but speculated that he could implode, providing an opening for another candidate to exploit.
“If fundraising and organization are any indication, that person could very well be Ron Paul,” Connor added. “Evoking an image of the ‘tortoise and the hare’ or the ‘Little Engine that Could,’ Paul is neither flashy nor fancy. He does not pander or preen, and it is unlikely that his sex life will become a topic of public conversation. With Paul, what you see is what you get: steady, predictable, plain spoken ... vanilla. He is above all a humble, self-effacing candidate who maintains a consistent and constant focus on the issues, not himself.
"He doesn't thump his chest or have an exaggerated sense of self-importance. He has a coherent and consistent world view, and his philosophy of government is strikingly simple: He thinks we should be governed by the Constitution. Following the path where his largely libertarian logic takes him, he believes that the ever-burgeoning federal government should be pared back dramatically so that the people and the states can exercise the degree of self-government envisioned by our forefathers. He thinks the U.S. is overextended economically and militarily and has a concrete vision for correcting the problems on both fronts.
"While Paul's refusal to play the game of politics-as-usual precludes a warm embrace by Republican blue bloods, he is remarkably well-financed (having raised over $12 million from mostly small donors) and has a devoted band of followers,” continued Connor. “Whether or not this long-term strategy for success will bear fruit remains to be seen, but the Beltway talking heads are beginning to recognize that it would be folly to dismiss Paul this early in the game. The polls are bearing this out. Having indulged themselves on everything from vichyssoise to Bananas Foster, it may well be that American conservatives are finally ready to cast their vote for plain 'ole vanilla.”
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
Comments (14)
I only caught on to Dr. Paul 4 years ago when the utter lack of a "publicized" candidate made me start looking at Wikipedia to see who among the candidates was "least evil". It's there that I first heard of Ron Paul, which is shocking considering how far-and-away better of a candidate he was than any of the other candidates at the time. Now I wish I had been involved enough to watch the debates back then because had I seen his schooling of Rudy Guilliani and John McCain I would actively worked for Ron Paul to get him nominated.
I think that this year is a tipping point - we're at a time now where people are starting to get more of their news from new-media versus the liberal establishment "old media", so we finally get to hear the truth. Now when you hear someone say "Ron Paul is a racist" some something stupid like that you can actually refute it immediately, and when someone says he "wants Iran to have nuclear missiles" or "wants to make Heroine legal", you know what his real position is and can help educate the people who only watch TV. That's our duty as supporters of Paul - we need to make use of the internet to spread the truth!
New Hampshire
Most of the Republican candidates stumping Iowa suggest more of the same kind of entitled privilege for the few that have done so well in what have been hard times for young and older middle and working class Americans. But one candidate, Ron Paul, paints a far different picture of a land which has never existed here in the United States or anywhere else on Earth.
Paul’s Utopia would somehow eliminate governing power itself. He does not make it clear how it would be any better than the same dominance of royal privilege that the Founding Fathers and minutemen ended by the American Revolution that was fought under a Declaration of Independence that asserted:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal (under the law), that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
And three-quarters of a century later in defense of this form of government, Abe Lincoln took the Union into battle to end domination of the self-entitled of the Plantation South that thought they were even empowered by God to own people as slaves and positioned to treat as white-trash people of their skin color that were held to share cropping and the heavy lifting of common toil.
The Good News for Paul's land is described by atheist Ayn Rand in Her old testament, “Fountainhead” (per the Randian calendar as 1943 J.G. or by the Gregorian 1943 B.C.) , in which God the Mother Rand brings to life Her carnal rendition of the cousin of the coming savior. This cousin being Howard Roark---known as John the Baptist in the Scripture Rand’s replaced. Later in Her new testament, “Atlas Shrugged” (Randian 1957 J.G. or Gregorian 1957 B.C.), in a flip-side to an immaculate conception Rand needs no God to impregnate Her and She gives birth to Her only begotten son, Jesus, actually John Galt.
Now prophet Paul (Ron Paul) would have us dream of Heaven on Earth where there is no governing power that can hurt any of us. Though those empowered with much wealth, with so much that they cannot pass through the eye of a needle into the kingdom of God, are to be trusted to stop making it a hell on earth for all who find it harder to find a job and afford food, clothing, shelter and a bit of happiness. Ah, the second coming may be nigh.
Much of the arguments for more government regulation are based on providing a fairer, more moral environment for all parties involved; ask yourself however, why are these situations tainted in the first place? Should the answer to these problems be to break the parties in question into their own groups and create different rights for each? Or maybe should the laws allowing for the injured party be changed? Maybe the law wasn’t followed through?
When I think of government regulation, I think of the government breaking us up and placing us one above or below the other. I find this is not a moral solution. Look around you and you will see we are a great people that need not divided. The true answer is to legalize freedom and liberty, and our moral nature will show through when other’s liberties are violated. Morality need not be dictated towards the people; as hard to believe as it may be, the people can be trusted and innately know what to do. While you may argue historical facts and figures, one must remember that laws are enacted not because of a moral government, but because of social trends that demand the change; therefore, all morality in law begins with the people. However, moral law unfortunately ends with the manipulation of power within government. And who keeps the government in check? THE PEOPLE! We must learn to trust one another again, otherwise our only other option will be to continue to control one another. How moral is that?
God Bless America - Ron Paul 2012
Anyone still on the fence about Ron Paul should read the following essay. It's very well-written and persuasive and goes to lengths to dispel some of the most common objections to a Ron Paul presidency. We need as many Floridians to see this as possible to swing the momentum in Dr. Paul's favor before primaries. Here is the link:
http://ladyliberty1776.blogspot.com/
Who the hell would vote for Newt! He cheated on his second wife while she was in the hospital with cancer!!
Ron Paul has been married for over 50 years!
Liberty. Peace. Prosperity.
Liberty. Peace. Prosperity.
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