The Discerning Texan

All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Ron Paul: Space Invader

It is good to see that I was not alone in being highly disturbed by Ron Paul's performance last night. This is a dangerous man, and it would not surprise me if he were not getting large amounts of money from Democratic sources just to continue to keep the Left's antiwar message out there in the Republican debates. But I think Roger Simon really summed up my own thoughts about this guy:

We'll all be watching the Thompson road show from here on in. [...]

He is the polar antithesis of Ron Paul, who is now starting to scare me. Glenn Reynolds calls him a kook, but that is charitable. He is worse. Paul gives me the willies. Something about watching him talk about "neo conservatives" in tonight's debate with his neck rigid and his hands clutching made me tense with memories I didn't like. The joke is over. There is something spooky about Ron Paul and something even spookier about his acolytes whose devotion pushes them to support him in online polls like cyber-brown shirts. They have made a mockery of the Pajamas Media Straw Poll (you should read our email--the Paulites filled with vitriol and obscenity when their candidate falls below one percent and drops off; reams of others writing us in despair to blackball him forever and return to the poll to normalcy).

The Fox News flash poll has also been destroyed by the Paulites who again pushed their candidate to victory tonight with 35% of the vote;Huckabee had 18 percent. Giuliani trudged along in third at 16. What does this mean? Paul still does not register on national polls. In fact, tonight he was devastated by Mike Huckabee, but that doesn't bother his acolytes whose belief in their leader is religious. I have no such belief in any politician and find that highly dangerous. Twentieth Century Europe was turned into a charnel house from such belief in leaders. Of course, the Paul crowd despises such comparisons but they are not the most sophisticated of people. His supporters live in a kind of libertarian-geek-neverland far from the reality of the lives of the rest of us. Trapped behind their computers, they want to squeeze the world into the models, but it just won't fit. They also have a kind of America first-ism that smacks of xenophobia. This is not a cocktail I care to drink.

Some states are going to allow Democrats to vote in the Republican primary--do not be surprised if Paul does well in some of those states, in a potential attempt to sabotage the other candidates. Fortunately this will be taking legitimate votes away from mostly the non-conservatives in the race. Do I see Paul as the nominee? No way, but I do think the other candidates need to spend more time taking shots at Paul to ensure his continued irrelevance (and hopefully his withdrawal...). This is an important election, and egomaniacs playing in the sandbox does not befit the seriousness that the Party needs to be taking these debates. And so long as extreme long shots like Paul, Tancredo, Hunter, and Brownback continue to rob the other candidates of serious airtime, it does not serve the need for serious Republicans to put up the candidate who has the best chance of beating Mrs. Clinton/Obama.

In the meantime, so long as the man with the propeller-head is on the stage, the other candidates need to continue to take hard shots at Paul by continuing to link Paul's head-in-the-sand position on the War to those of Clinton and Obama; at least this will serve to keep the public focused on the fact that this nutjob's position is also the consensus position of Democrats.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Republican