I’ll never forget the first time I heard Ron Paul speak. It was a little over four years ago. I got a phone call from a friend of mine who was, at the time, attending the University of Michigan. He told me that Congressman Paul was going to be there to give a speech. At first, I was a little hesitant.
After all, despite being a lifelong Wolverine fan, the reason I didn’t personally attend U of M was because as far as politics are concerned, it is extremely left-leaning. So why a Republican candidate would pick that location to give a speech in Michigan was beyond me. Having attended school in West Michigan, I knew that that was a place that was much more friendly to conservatives (maybe that’s why Grand Rapids is in better shape than Detroit, but I digress).
Despite my reservations, I figured at the very least I would get to visit with some old friends, so I went anyways.
As Paul began to speak, I started thinking “This is our guy!” But that started to change as the speech went on.
Paul would say something along the lines of “We need to follow our Constitution as it’s written!”
YES!
“We need to secure our borders”
RIGHT ON!
“We need lower taxes and have more personal responsibility!”
AMEN!
“We need to legalize pot!”
Uhh….
“We need to decrease the size of our military!”
Hold on…
I had never gone from loving a guy to hoping that he wouldn’t get the GOP nomination so quickly.
Thankfully, Ron Paul has no chance of winning the GOP nomination. That was true four years ago and it’s true today. The “Paulbots” as some are calling supporters of Ron Paul, need to realize this.
National polls have Ron Paul hovering between 13% and 4%. However, consider this: RonPaul.com reports that in a national poll in August 2010, Paul brought in 4% of the vote with 5 choices presented to those surveyed. In November 2010 when the number of choices went to 8, Paul had 5%. What does this mean? People aren’t going to jump from one of the other candidates to support Ron Paul. He gets about the same percentage if he’s got 4 competitors or if he’s got 7. So as the numbers decrease (for example, if Cain drops out as some are suggesting he may), there’s no evidence to suggest that people will join the Paul camp. It doesn’t matter if there are 2 choices or 200, Paul will consistently get anywhere from 4% to 13% of the vote.
In fact, the diversity of the GOP field coupled with Paul having a guaranteed 4-13% is the main reason he took second in a recent Iowa poll. He may have done better than Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann, but if that crowd was smaller, he would have lost because those that remained would have gotten votes from the supporters of candidates who left the race.
There’s a reason for this. Let’s consider just one part of Ron Paul’s platform: Israel. Here’s what Paul said regarding the US and Israel during one of the debates.
Ron Paul is saying we’re in the way of Israel. He says he wouldn’t support Israel if they attacked Iran to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons. He goes on to say that we “interfere” with Israel.
I challenge any of the Paulbots to find a case where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says anything similar. I want to hear it right from Netanyahu’s mouth that we’re “interfering” with Israel. Netanyahu makes regular trips to the United States. I don’t get the impression that that’s his key message.
The fact of the matter is that Israel is a friend of the United States. How many standing leaders of NATO nations have had the honor of speaking to a joint session of Congress? Netanyahu has done it twice. And, as Paul pointed out, we don’t even have a treaty with Israel. At least nothing like we have with NATO.
And this isn’t a GOP/Democrat thing. When Netanyahu addressed Congress in May, he said “And I do see a lot of old friends here. And I see a lot of new friends of Israel here as well, Democrats and Republicans alike.” That was only followed by about 20 seconds of applause. It was followed by Netanyahu saying “Israel has no better friend than America and America has no better friend than Israel.” That was followed by about 17 seconds of applause. Not many statements will get that kind of support from a group fairly evenly divided by party affiliation. And yet, Ron Paul has pretty much written off support of Israel. Even if he was elected, how is Paul going to get these people who are standing with Israel to change? As Paul himself says, it’s Congress that declares war. Well look at where Congress is with Israel on your own.
That’s not all! The Anti-Defamation League put out an article saying the support of Evangelical Christians for Israel is a good thing. It goes on to say “In many ways, the Christian Right stands out as the most consistently supportive group of Israel in America.” It also says that while members of both parties in Congress supports Israel, “…there is no doubt that Evangelical members are notably aggressive in their support, proposing resolutions and speaking out forcefully.”
It’s not just Christians in Congress. The article also says “…polls of American public opinion reveal, in marked contrast to similar polls in Europe, that the American people support Israel over the Palestinians by a significant margin. A key element in these consistent findings in many polls… is the overwhelming support for Israel among individuals calling themselves Evangelical.” The article goes on and on and on.
If someone said to me that Obama was more pro-Israel than Paul, I wouldn’t be able to argue against that.
Ron Paul’s platform doesn’t sit well with THE biggest voting bloc in the Republican Party. This isn’t to say that Christians will go out and vote for Obama, it’s to say they won’t show up on election day at all. How does a Republican win without them?
Weakened support from Christians for the GOP Presidential candidate will trickle down to Congressional races and the Democractic Party could potentially have the biggest victory in history. A Ron Paul nomination would be the best thing that could happen to Obama and for ObamaCare, Porkulus II, you name it. With a President and a party that ignores the Constitution so much, a Ron Paul nomination would damage that document more than any other candidate in the GOP race. How’s that for irony?
And it’s not just his platform that’s going to sink Paul. He’s not going to be able to replace much lost support by picking up people who don’t identify as Evalgelical Christians. Let’s listen to Ron Paul talk.
When watching this video, I used an old teaching method I was exposed to when I was getting started in radio. It’s called an “um” counter. In short, we count the number of times a person stutters or says something like “um” or “uh.” In 5 minutes, Paul’s “um” counter was at 14.
Now contrast this with President Obama in one of his debates in 2008 race.
While Obama stumbles a couple times, he’s clearly a better speaker than Ron Paul. Hillary Clinton even complimented Obama on his speaking ability.
And before any Paulbots say that that shouldn’t matter, unfortunately it does. If anyone disagrees, just do a Bing search on the Nixon-Kennedy debates. There’s a reason Time said “It’s now common knowledge that without the nation’s first televised debate… Kennedy would never have been president.” Any history teacher will say the same. Debates matter and public image matters. Ron Paul can’t win against someone as polished as Obama. That’s especially true considering he’s already alienated the Christian Right by not supporting Israel.
I haven’t even touched on other parts of his platform or the fact that he’s a Congressman (how many people from the House have been elected President in the past 100 years?). To cover all the reasons who Paul can’t win, I’d have to write a book. These are just the key reasons.
So, Paulbots, when a commentator overlooks Ron Paul, don’t act like they’re not giving him a chance. Don’t say that they’re in with Corporate America, are part of the war machine, or anything like that. Wake up and smell American politics. He doesn’t stand a chance.
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