Ron Paul Gaining Ground in Iowa

Read this piece today from the NY Times. While it does give Ron Paul a lot of credit for getting support from certain niche groups, it fails on a few other fronts.

Firstly it describes Paul's foreign policy as isolationist. A very big mistake, since Paul's position on foreign policy is non-interventionism. Many opponents of Paul will label him as a isolationist to describe him negatively and to discount this foreign policy all together. Isolationism would be similar to China's foreign policy back in the 14th century before they opened their doors to the rest of the world, where they did not trade, talk, or even let foreigners into their country. Paul on the other hand would want to do all of these things. He just does not believe that we should be the policeman of the world and be involved militarily in so many countries and conflicts.

Secondly, it describes two people who would not vote for Paul. One of them was a woman who said she would not vote for him because of his stance on abortion. She is for a woman's right to choose. Unfortunately, she is misinformed. Yes Ron Paul respects life in the womb, but he also states that he is not in favor of any law that would make abortion illegal on the federal level. He doesn't believe that is the federal government's job. Instead he would defer to the state.

Thirdly, the other individual that said they would not vote for Paul said that he disagreed with how to handle Iran. Unfortunately for him though, I think most Americans are tired of preventative wars. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Uganda, and now Iran? If you want MORE WAR then I guess Ron Paul is not your candidate.

Ron Paul Can Win Iowa

A new Bloomberg article here shows that Ron Paul is in a statistical dead heat with Cain, Romney, and Gingrich, but also has the most solid support in Iowa. Good news for Ron Paul supporters even though the media seems to be continuing their non-coverage of him.

In Saturday's debate in South Carolina, Ron Paul was only given 89 seconds of speaking time over the course of one televised hour, the least of any candidate on stage. However, in that 89 seconds, Paul differentiated himself from the other candidates astoundingly by declaring that he is against waterboarding as he considers it torture, and against war with Iran without a solid declaration of war and national security risk.

I would note that John Huntsman also held these positions as well. Personally, I am warming up to Huntsman as he seems both knowledgable and presentable on most issues which he is allowed to address. Too bad that he isn't getting coverage either.

Why Some Don't Support Ron Paul

After Saturday's debate, I looked on the CBS comment board to see the reaction, and this is what I saw:

The ad hominem attack that he is 'crazy', is just a perpetuation of a non-substantive attack for lazy people.

The second one though is troubling. A student, who I assume is getting loans backed by the federal government, will not support Paul because he eventually wants to get rid of the federal student loan program. The problem with this is two-fold.

1. Ron Paul is for eventually getting rid of the program, not outright eliminating it. He realizes that some people currently depend on it. If anything his solution is pragmatic, allowing current students who have expected to pay for college using these loans to keep doing so, but allowing people to not expect to do so later down the road.

2. People just don't want to give up their subsidies. This goes for big business too. When one is the benefit of government subsidies, its hard to take it away. One can equate the dependency to that of illicit drugs. I'm not going to sugar coat this, but in my opinion that is just plain selfish. "I would support him, but he is going to take away my goodies." That's basically what the guy is saying, and undoubtedly the commenter ignores the issue of why his tuition is so high in the first place, which is Ron Paul's point for ending the program.

If these are the typical American voters, what hope do we have in solving any of our problems?

Al-Queda?

Are we fighting or helping terrorists... I don't even know anymore.