Ron Paul takes the lead in Iowa.

[Elok]

Honestly, even decades-old racist stuff is likely to prove an albatross for Paul. Sure, he's got high approval ratings among non-whites now, but until recently he was considered too irrelevant to dig up dirt on. I suspect that most Americans, like me, hadn't heard of those old newsletters until a week or two ago. That will change now that he's stepping into the media's crosshairs.

[Imran Siddiqui]

That bird don't fly. Ron Paul's approval from non-whites leads all other GOP candidates

Um, that is because up until now, Paul has been treated with kid gloves because he wasn't going anywhere. If he wins Iowa, expect the negative campaigning on this stuff to come out in full force on this as well as his stance on drugs.

[HalfLotus]

Negative campaigning on this issue has already been going on for a week or more. We'll see what effect it has on the numbers. Paul's supporters are by far the least likely to switch back to another candidate, so I expect a small drop.

Either way, Paul's biggest weakness is obviously the neocon vote, not blacks.

Blowback for Dummies:

[Boris Godunov]

Anyone who thinks Paul stands a chance to win the GOP nomination is delusional. Even if he wins Iowa, all that will do will consolidate support around Romney. As much as many Republicans have been desperately searching for a not-Romney, most of them would be even more horrified by Paul as the alternative. His statements that we should be allowing Iran to develop nukes alone is enough to kill his chances with any sizeable part of the GOP. Add in his anti-authoritarianism and he's anti-militarism and there's no way the majority of the Republicans will back him--and certainly not the base which is what largely turns out for the primaries.

Comparing his situation to Obama's in 2008 is inane--that only works under the vaguest of "both were behind the front-runner at this point." That completely ignores the vast differences in their respective positions. Obama held views that fit in well with the mainstream of the Democratic base, Paul does not have the same luxury within his party. Also, the Republicans simply do NOT have drawn-out primary battles. They just don't. Moreso than the Democrats, they always tend to coalesce around the "chosen one" who is favored by the party establishment. When was the last time a GOP front-runner's nomination was in doubt past Super Tuesday? You'd have to go back to 1976 to Ford v. Reagan to see an actual contest, and that was under rather different circumstances.

So Paul might well win Iowa, but after that Romney will sweep. Mitt will be the presumptive nominee by March 7, if not earlier.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Boris comes down on the side of the GOP are evil but competent enough to know that Paul is insane.

Those who argue Paul winning the GOP argue that not only are the GOP evil but incompetent as well.


Put me down for evil and competent.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Does that make you a Romney supporter?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Lawful evil ftw

He does kind of have that suave Lucifer look.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

That bird don't fly. Ron Paul's approval from non-whites leads all other GOP candidates:


http://www.prisonplanet.com/cnn-poll-ron-paul-most-popular-republican-amongst-non-whites.html

Prison Planet, and everything else connected to Alex Jones, doles out the sloppiest journalism and most egregious misquoting I've ever seen used as "sources" on politics forums. In this case, it's worth remembering that all Paul's quotes were aimed at Blacks, whereas the polls quoted refer to results from "non-whites". Conclusive evidence of support from the black community this isn't.

[Elok]

Lawful evil ftw

He does kind of have that suave Lucifer look.

I think Satan would do a better job of acting personable/amiable than Romney does.

[HalfLotus]

It helps to fund social safety programs which provide assistance for those in need when we don't waste our money on cutting taxes for the richest Americans (yes, as well as curtailing military spending, but Paul isn't willing to use that bonus in order to give assistance to those who most need it).

It's funny that you consider the taxes "collected" (e.g. taken at virtual gunpoint) from wealthy Americans to be "our money". By that I suppose you mean you and your loving government. How cute.

That same government, and the U.S. political establishment in general, are taking us down a path of certain financial doom if that path is not corrected.

Give me Paul, or any other honest man in the White House who doesn't dance to the tune of bankers, and I'll be happy. Any other choice invites certain financial catastrophe in the U.S. and probably around the world.

[HalfLotus]

Prison Planet, and everything else connected to Alex Jones, doles out the sloppiest journalism and most egregious misquoting I've ever seen used as "sources" on politics forums.

We know. But in this case it's worth remembering that the U.S. establishment media is a 24/7 circus of lies and propaganda, and we have to look to other sources for info. I checked the polls cited and quoted, and they are indeed accurate.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Accurate they might be, but they still don't prove black support for Ron Paul. Or did your checks suggest otherwise?

[Elok]

A good candidate might succeed despite a few weird views. He might survive a decades-old scandal linking him to lots of horrific racism. He might survive alienating the money-men, he might survive refusing to pucker up for Israel, he might survive a tendency to squawk endlessly about economic concepts most people don't care about.

But he'd have to be downright magic to beat all those handicaps at once.

[kentonio]

It's funny that you consider the taxes "collected" (e.g. taken at virtual gunpoint) from wealthy Americans to be "our money". By that I suppose you mean you and your loving government. How cute.

Oh those poor rich folk, they use the social structure to build up huge fortunes and are then cruelly forced to actually contribute to maintaining that social structure instead of buying a third Ferrari. I don't know how the poor things manage, I really don't.

[kentonio]

Oh dear, looks like the newsletter he had absolutely nothing to do with, was rather more connected to him 16 years ago on C-SPAN..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1165877.html

But along with that, I also put out a political type of business investment newsletter that sort of covered all these areas. And it covered a lot about what was going on in Washington, and financial events, and especially some of the monetary events. Since I had been especially interested in monetary policy, had been on the banking committee, and still very interested in, in that subject, that this newsletter dealt with it. This had to do with the value of the dollar, the pros and cons of the gold standard, and of course the disadvantages of all the high taxes and spending that our government seems to continue to do.