Ron Paul for President

I was first introduced to Ron Paul (not personally, but to his politics) by a good friend. He pointed me to Paul's congressional site a few years ago.

I've been vaguely familiar lately with his pursuit of the 2008 presidential nomination. Another good friend has been preaching the merits of Paul for President as well in an email discussion group.

I've just spent the last hour or so watching clips of Paul in debates and on both the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and on Real Time with Bill Maher. If you watch them you'll see a television rarity- a republican candidate being received warmly, even greeted with a measure of glee on each of these two shows with decidedly non-republican hosts and audiences.

Color me impressed.

He is intelligent, articulate and truly principled. He actually answers questions- he doesn't do the typical sidestep on the tough ones. And he offers his opinions warmly and graciously, without the typical self-righteous sneer of many of today's politicians.

As I soaked up his responses, I actually felt excitement about the political process, an emotion I've probably not felt since I was a sheepish child "campaigning" for my preferred candidate back in high school.

Here is an excerpt on Paul from his wikipedia entry.

Paul advocates a limited role for the federal government, low taxes, free markets, a non-interventionist foreign policy, and a return to monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He has earned the nickname "Dr. No" because he is a medical doctor who votes against the bills he believes to be unconstitutional.[1] In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Paul is the "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capitol Hill.[2] He has never voted to raise taxes or congressional pay, and refuses to participate in the congressional pension system.[3] He has consistently voted against the USA PATRIOT Act, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and the Iraq War.

And here is an excerpt from his campaign website.

He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.

He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.

He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

I highly recommend investigating Mr. Paul and his campaign. If you want to see more clips of him engaging hosts, opponents, etc... you can go to his site on YouTube.