Jul 10, 2010

Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul 2012

Okay, Paulistas, Ron Paul has announced that he is official considering a 2012 run for president, CNN says so.

For those of you who only know him as a meme on message boards, the Texas Republican Representative has run in the past, and has gotten about as far as Al Sharpton in the primaries. He's the Dennis Kuinich of the Republicans - he's there to remind them of what their party is supposed to believe in and fight for. Paul has a group of extremely loyal supporters, most of which are Independent or Libertarian voters, and a couple tin foil hat wearers in the mix too. Despite all that support, he was unable to garner enough support for a GOP nomination in 2008. And to be honest, he was almost kept out of the debates, and when he was allowed to enter, he wiped the floors with Rudy, Mitt and Johnny - by was limited by his allowed speaking time.

As for running on a third party docket, everyone knows that has never worked for anyone (except maybe Lincoln) in the USA. In his favor of hijacking the GOP, is that they're flailing around like a dying fish - what with Michael Steel running around in a circle looking for water. The Republicans are already looking for a suitable contender for the nomination. Yes, Sarah Palin we see you with your hand up waving, doing cartwheels for the teacher for attention, but we should expect that she will probably be laughed off the stage by the Blue Blood types that run the party.

Mitt Romney, Bobby Jindal, Scott Brown, and Mike Huckabee are other possibilities, and probably more likely faces you'll see in the primaries.

But, Paul doesn’t actually think he will ever be in the seat of power...
“I don’t expect to be president. I don’t expect to be. That doesn’t mean I won’t run for president, but I am really energized when I think we make inroads … to broaden the outreach on the philosophy I have been talking about for 40 years,” Paul said to CNN.
Like Dennis Kucinich, Paul's message is spread by a presidential run. However, the news and attention this approach draws is a discussion on how these two fringe players have no chance at the nomination. There's almost never a detailed look at their policy ideas. Well, maybe at midnight on NPR... But, despite the lack of good coverage, some of their ideas can bleed into the party platform -- and lately the libertarian ideas and values of the Paul brand has been making inroads to policy ideas for the GOP.

And then there's the Tea Party, which some speculate are mostly made up of disenfranchised Paul voters who are looking for a leader. A real leader. He fits the bill perfectly. I'd much rather see Ron Paul than someone else who may suggest the Tea Party picks up matching snappy uniforms. Brown or Black shirts. Whatever is at sale at Wal-Mart.

Stranger things have happened in politics - Look at Barry Goldwater. But then, it was the most conservative candidate possible against LBJ.

And history does have a way of repeating itself.

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