VOLuntarilyConservative

OK, so I ended up getting out of court a little early, and I got a nice pick-me-up courtesy of Volunteer Voters.

This video is quite interesting. First, it is worth playing because you get some wonderful oratory by my hero, Ronald Reagan. I would play it a hundred times over just to hear him. Second, it shows some interesting confluence between the two Ron's. Third, it shows how inspirational Ron Paul can be when you put a little violin in the background. One of my main complaints with the candidates (sans Fred Thompson) is that they don't inspire me. As Fred pointed out with Huckabee and the "hate America first crowd," I want to drive headlong into oncoming traffic after hearing most of them. To me, Ron Paul has been very bland in the debates thus far. With this packaging, I don't feel that way, and I feel a bit better about him as a candidate.



What do you think? Is it all in the packaging, or is this simply a case of substance being ignored due to the lack of style that surrounds it?

MORE: After posting this, I decided to see if I could find some formal explanation for the racist rants that were in Ron Paul's newsletters. Here is what I found from a Ron Paul press release:

"The quotations in The New Republic article are not mine and do not represent what I believe or have ever believed. I have never uttered such words and denounce such small-minded thoughts.

“In fact, I have always agreed with Martin Luther King, Jr. that we should only be concerned with the content of a person’s character, not the color of their skin. As I stated on the floor of the U.S. House on April 20, 1999: ‘I rise in great respect for the courage and high ideals of Rosa Parks who stood steadfastly for the rights of individuals against unjust laws and oppressive governmental policies.’

“This story is old news and has been rehashed for over a decade. It’s once again being resurrected for obvious political reasons on the day of the New Hampshire primary.

“When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine full-time, a newsletter was published under my name that I did not edit. Several writers contributed to the product. For over a decade, I have publically taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name.”

This seems to explain quite a bit of what was lobbed at Ron Paul by the same idiots who blew the George Allen remarks out of context back in 2006. My concern with Paul in this scandal is the same as with Allen - neither campaign even came close to responding strongly and with conviction against these allegations. Paul has been painted as a racist in much the same manner as Allen, and people will forever associate the two with this label because the people who handle their campaigns were not effective in combating the allegations.

For an interesting piece on this controversy, take a look at Outside the Beltway from earlier in January.

Labels: 2008 GOP Presidential Primary, Ron Paul