Ron Paul convincingly won multiple post debate polls yesterday
after putting in another solid performance despite more attempts
to brand him an isolationist and a conspiracy theorist.
Some have even suggested that elements of the debate
were set up to smear Ron Paul as racist.
The debate, jointly hosted by CNN and Youtube took
questions from so called "Youtube users". However, many
of the profiles of the featured questioners on Youtube.com have
only been set up for a number of days and have very few videos
on them, indicating that the questioners were carefully handpicked
by and notified beforehand by CNN.
One particular question focused directly at Ron
Paul took at bash at his supporters as the very wooden questioner,
clearly reading something he did not seem to have written himself,
stated "I have met a lot of your supporters online but I've
noticed that a good number of them seem to buy into this conspiracy
theory regarding the Council on Foreign Relations and some plan
to make a North American Union... These supporters of yours seem
to think that you also believe in this theory, so my question
is do you really believe in all this?"
The Congressman succinctly explained that the move
toward a North American Union is a very real thing and just because
it is not discussed openly by politicians and in the media does
not mean it is some monolithic made up conspiracy theory:
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A second bizarre moment occurred when John McCain
was asked a question on taxes and instead chose to attack Ron
Paul's anti-war stance by calling him an isolationist, saying
his policies would have aided Hitler and that the troops do not
support him.
The Congressman hit back by reminding McCain that
he has received more donations from active duty military personnel
than any other Republican candidate and that non-interventionism
does not equate to isolationism, rather invasion does:
A third strange moment during the debate which raised a lot of
talking points was the fact that CNN chose to take a question
from a Ron
Paul supporter concerning the meaning of the confederate
flag. The questioner again seemed to be reading a script. Fred
Thompson among others jumped in to point out that to many Americans
the stars and bars is a symbol of racism.
Ron Paul also took a question on abortion and again
reiterated his view that he is against it but that it is not a
matter for the federal government to be involved in. Unlike many
of the other candidates who have flip flopped on this issue, the
Congressman has remained constant.
Considering that Ron Paul was once again afforded
very little time to speak throughout the debate in comparison
with the other candidates, and again had to deal with base attempts
to smear him and his supporters, he produced another strong showing
which has been reflected in CNN's
own online poll as well as other post debate polls:
Watch an edited collection of Ron Paul's moments
during last night's debates: