AP Texas News
March 12, 2007, 12:19PM
Texas congressman Paul formally announces presidential candidacy
HOUSTON — Ron Paul, a nine-term Texas congressman who describes himself as a lifelong libertarian, formally announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination Monday.
Appearing on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," Paul said he was at first reluctant to run, but that "a lot of people want to hear my message and I'm willing to deliver it."
Paul, who formed an exploratory committee in January, said he had raised more than $500,000 in the past month "with very little effort."
"So far, the amount of money raised isn't competitive with those establishment candidates who will raise $100 million, but with the Internet and the amount of money and enthusiasm, I think we can become very competitive," he said.
Paul, who also ran for the White House as a Libertarian Party candidate in 1988, has spent three days campaigning in New Hampshire. He is planning trips to Arizona and Iowa, homes to some of the nation's earliest caucuses and primaries, and said he expects to be included in any GOP debates.
Paul, an obstetrician/gynecologist from just south of Houston, is far from the Republican mainstream and acknowledged that he has been largely shunned by the national party. He has criticized President Bush for acting unconstitutionally in sending U.S. troops to Iraq and has said he would support an investigation into whether Bush "deliberately misrepresented" his reasons for doing so.
"I'm very confident the Republican party has gone in the wrong direction," Paul said in his C-SPAN appearance. "We used to be the party of small government. Now we're the party of big government."
By JOE STINEBAKER Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
For more information....
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=70183124 (check out his myspace
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I have been keeping up with my favorite 2008 candidate and am now very excited that he officialled announced his candidacy. Now I realize he has little name recognition, but I am just curious how would you feel about this heavily libertarian candidate. He is very much opposed to the Iraq war, making him a very different candidate. I guess another question of mine....what do you think his shot of getting past the primaries is.....1 in a million?
Posts
Except i think less people know who he is and more people know that libertarians are whacko.
Anyway, I used parts from one of his speeches in a paper I wrote so I know who he is. I liked very much what he said in the speech and the timing of it too. He was warning against an overreaction of American power shortly after 9-11. I'll be listening to what he has to say.
Hillary will be the death of us all.
Obama doesn't seem too bad, but I don't really get the feeling that much will change with him in power.
Ron Paul understands how the forefathers envisioned the government, and wants to work to get us closer to that ideal.
The founding fathers didn't fetishize the market. They mostly just sought to limit government in certain ways.
Why is that funny wording?
They were also kinda cool with owning people.
They were also a diverse group of people who hated each other with a burning passion.
Whatever the merits of the Libertarian party might be, most actual Libertarians are batshit crazy.
I believe that may be the nicest thing you've ever said about any Texan.:P
I waited on this guy about four years ago when I was working near the Galleria in Houston; he's not a bad guy and it's been my experience that people's worst behavior comes out while dining in a restaurant. So for what it's worth, he's a decent tipper with good manners and doesn't take his server for granted. I don't know how much that will influence people when it comes to voting and how much his dining habits will affect his governing skills, but he can't be any worse than Dubya.
p.s. His bio isn't half bad either: http://www.house.gov/paul/bio.shtml
edit: I know he's not a native Texan, yeesh.
Ron Paul is crazy. Given that there are your Joe Bidens and Barack Obamas and John Edwards who aren't crazy, I'd hardly say he's the "only decent candidate."
:roll: :roll: :roll:
She wouldn't be great, but she wouldn't be terrible.
I get the feeling he could do a lot better job than the guy we have in there now.
Which forefathers? Because Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had two very different visions of the government.
And why the hell do the forefathers' ideals matter, anyhow? An awful lot of them considered "owning people" as part of the ideal government, too.
The press statement says he's running for the Republican nomination. I don't think he'll win, but it's his only shot.
For some reason, despite all the evidence to the contrary, Libertarians and the libertarian wing of the Republican party think that the Republicans are the party of small government.
Personally, I think they've been living in a cave somewhere for the past five years.
You mean a Republican in Congress like I just talked about? I mean the state government.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I wouldn't say he is crazy, he just is principled and refuses to change his views to accomodate other people. I'm not a fan of either Clinton or Obama
Clinton:
protective tariffs, Universal health care, pro-abortion, Gun control, anti-videogames, against vouchers
Flip flopper: Immigration (called for strict regulation but voted against H.R. 4437), Iraq war, Patriot Act
She definetly isn't the worst candidate, but I just feel like she only makes political moves for glory and popularity.
Obama:
Farm subsidies, pro-abortion, wants to guarentee life-long affordable education (not quite sure what he means by this), control energy sources, wants to promote democracy abroad, gun control, universal health care, patriot act, wants to make sure "african americans" have access to jobs, strengthen union and worker rights, very pro-welfare.
I think he is inexperienced and doesn't match my principles so I would have no interest in voting for him.
Paul08
You mean like George W. Bush? Jesus Day is a really libertarian idea now?
As for flip flopping. He voted for the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003 despite being a libertarian who supposedly believed that the issue should be left to the state governments. He supported an act that would prevent the Supreme Court from ordering a state to recognize gay marriage in other states so he apparently doesn't mind fucking with the constitution.
From his voting records, it appears he likes to say "states rights" any time a controversial issue appears.
:roll:
Yes, I'm talking about the past, the long-long-ago.