The conservative pundits are now referring to Ron Paul as a "crackpot."
Hannity predictably savaged him last night (see above). The Hewitt
site has an image of a man in a tin-foil hat; Dean
Barnett and Hugh
Hewitt both call for removing Paul from the debates, when he
has been the best thing about them so far. Bill Benett wants him
out. I'm getting the usual ridicule for taking him seriously from
the usual GOP apparatchiks. They're scared, aren't they? The Internet
polls show real support for him. Fox News' own internet poll placed
him a close second, with 25 percent of the votes from Fox
News viewers.
We have a real phenomenon here - because someone has to stand up
for what conservatism once stood for. Whether you agree with him
or not ( and I know few outside doctrinaire libertarians who agree
with everything he says), he has already elevated the debates
by injecting into them a legitimate, if now suppressed, strain of
conservatism that is actually deeper in this country than the neoconservative
aggression that now captures the party elite and has trapped the
US in the Iraq nightmare. Last night, Fox News tried to destroy
him. Today the right-wing blogs will. My view is that the Beltway
has this wrong again, as Byron York is finding
out. Paul is saying things many Americans and many Republicans
believe. On the war and spending, he is venting a vital part of
conservative opinion - and, in my view, the conservative
critique of this war and these Republicans is more damning than
any liberal one. I may not agree with him on everything and he is
far from a smooth operator. But he has more balls than most of them
put together. Check this video
montage from the first debate and this
exchange from the second. Make your own mind up. Hang in there,
Dr Ron. There are more of us out here wishing you the best than
you know.
