Ron Paul

…a little. But that’s more than I can say for most of the current republican candidates for president.

In the wake of the first republican presidential debate, there are a number of self-proclaimed “true” conservatives decrying the mainstream media’s outright shunning of Ron Paul. Some of them even going so far as to declare that there’s an organized conspiracy by the media against Ron Paul to 1) assure that Hillary Clinton wins the White House or 2) assure that democrat-in-sheep’s-clothing John McCain wins the White House or 3) assure that [take your pick from the a la carte menu offered by the damned liberal media machine].

As someone who didn’t even watch the debate, I hadn’t even heard of Ron Paul until I came across a few people whining about the lack of coverage. Personally, I don’t buy their assumptions about why it’s being done. I’m much more apt to attribute the failure to general incompetence as a news organization. But given some of the polling statistics released after the debate, it’s hard to argue that there isn’t a failure on their part.

According to a rating window on the MSNBC.com website at 8:10 ET on May 4th, Ron Paul was carrying the highest positive rating (with 72,419 votes in at the time)…

32% - Paul
30% - Romney
26% - Giuliani
21% - McCain
14% - Huckabee
9% - Brownback
9% - Tancredo
8% - Hunter
8% - Thompson
6% - Gilmore

Not only that, he also had the lowest negative rating…

29% - Paul
35% - Romney
37% - Huckabee
40% - Giuliani
42% - McCain
43% - Gilmore
43% - Hunter
45% - Thompson
45% - Tancredo
46% - Brownback

Furthermore, on another MSNBC poll Ron Paul is as far from the rest of the pack as one can get.

MSNBC poll

Here is the top three for each of the other pertinent questions…

Who showed the most leadership qualities?
Ron Paul - 41%
Mitt Romney - 19%
Rudy Giuliani - 15%

Who was the most convincing candidate?
Ron Paul - 44%
Mitt Romney - 18%
Rudy Giuliani - 13%

Who had the most rehearsed answers?
John McCain - 31%
Rudy Giuliani - 24%
Mitt Romney - 23%
(Ron Paul had 7.6% on this question)

Who avoided the questions?
Rudy Giuliani - 39%
John McCain - 18%
Mitt Romney - 13%
(Ron Paul had 6.9% on this question)

Admittedly, self selecting (online) polls are not scientific surveys, and are not representative of the general population. So I am purposely refraining from saying anything that could be construed as saying that Ron Paul is the republican frontrunner or a clear leader for the primary race. But it still seems that this kind of consistent position at the top warrants him some attention, or at least more than he’s getting from the mainstream media.

It inspired me to take a look at him. And here’s what I found:

  • He has never voted to raise taxes.
  • He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
  • He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
  • He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
  • He has never taken a government-paid junket.
  • He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
  • He voted against the Patriot Act.
  • He voted against regulating the Internet.
  • He voted against the Iraq war.
  • He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
  • He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
  • He introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.

The ones that I particularly like are highlighted. Needless to say, there are probably a number of other issues where I disagree with Ron Paul, like Women’s Rights (read: abortion - maybe, not sure of his stance), or Globalization. Also, on his website on the subject of taxes he (falsely) claims that “lower taxes benefit all of us”, but at least he recognizes the relationship between taxes and spending, unlike the current republicans in power. And he also recognizes the consequences of running constant deficits and adding to the national debt by selling pieces of ourselves to other growing economies, like China.

I don’t agree with him on everything, but I have to admit that after these last 7 years with BushCo, the qualities that I look for in a president go beyond just the ballot-grabbing issues to characteristics like how power-hungry they are, or their penchant for war-mongering and war profiteering (read: treason), or their ability to recognize the complexity of the world without reducing everything to a child-like battle between good and evil. Ron Paul, so far, seems to have a good head on his shoulders. And like I said, I like this guy.

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