Ron Paul's opposition to all things not spelled
out in the Constitution have won him jeers and followers.
By Matt Stearns, McClatchy News Service
May 19, 2007
WASHINGTON It's a fine line between quixotic and committed,
and just where Ron Paul falls is an open question as the
Texas congressman pursues the 2008 Republican presidential
nomination.
The case for quixotic: It's a unique conceit to run as an
anti-Iraq-war candidate in a generally pro-war party; to vow
to eliminate myriad federal agencies, including the CIA, the
IRS and the Federal Reserve; and to oppose every act of the
federal government not specifically approved in the Constitution
(including niceties such as congressional gold medals for such
people as Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks and Pope John Paul II).
"I've advocated over the years the elimination of most
big-government things I can't find in the Constitution," Paul
said in an interview.
Trying to explain that during a recent presidential debate,
Paul said, "I'm a strong believer in original intent" of
the Constitution's framers. To which moderator Chris Matthews,
the MSNBC television personality, responded with a disdainful, "Oh,
God."
The case for committed: If somebody needs to drag the Republican
Party back to its roots, Paul said, "I'm offering that
alternative."
Paul was one of six House of Representatives Republicans who
voted against the 2002 authorization to use force in Iraq,
based on the same wariness of excessive international involvement
that long guided Republican foreign-policy thinking. Traceable
to George Washington's warning against entangling foreign alliances,
its post-World War II followers -- including "Mr. Republican" Sen.
Robert Taft of Ohio -- likely would share Paul's view of President
Bush's adventures in democratic nation-building as muddleheaded
folly.
"He touches a nerve out there," said Bruce Buchanan,
a political scientist at the University of Texas. "There
are Republicans who believe it was a mistake to get in there
to begin with, and that's the Paul constituency."
The rest of Paul's platform is a jet-fueled version of the
small-government, low-tax conservatism espoused by Barry Goldwater,
whose principled stands became the foundation of the modern
GOP. It's what the nine other declared Republican presidential
hopefuls all claim to want, too, even though none dares follow
Paul's embrace of its stronger features.
"He's performing an enormously valuable service," said
Michael Tanner, author of "Leviathan on the Right: How
Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution."His
very existence on the stage pressures the others. There is
a small-government, libertarian conservative base in the Republican
Party. It may or may not be as big as the religious right.
It's open for the taking."
But who is he?
Who he is: An Air Force veteran, Duke-educated ob-gyn who
has delivered, by his estimation, more than 4,000 babies. A
10-term member of the House, making him among the most politically
experienced of the presidential candidates. A savvy enough
politician to ensure that Texas' 14th congressional district
gets its share of federal loot, including those earmarks that
many conservatives despise.
"I'm their representative," Paul said. "If
they say, 'We need A, B, C,' I pass their requests on. ...We
have every right in the world to get back what we send."
Whippet-thin, with intense hang-dog eyes, the 71-year-old
Paul comes across as a loopily enthusiastic professor, voice
rising in pitch and pace, arms waving, as he delves into pet
issues, especially the folly of taking the country off the
gold standard (which sparked his initial interest in politics).
"Kind of quirky," Tanner said. "He has some
issues that give him a fringe-y air."
Paul ran once before for president, as the Libertarian Party's
nominee in 1988. He won about 450,000 votes, good for third
place and about 0.5 percent of the vote.
Ever iconoclastic, Paul strays from Libertarian Party orthodoxy
on the issue of abortion (he opposes abortion rights). But
the party has no hard feelings for its former nominee: "We
love Ron Paul," gushed Shane Cory, the party's executive
director. "He's one of the best congressmen on the Hill."
But on the presidential campaign trail, Paul lags at 1 or
2 percent in polls. Even so, he has some things going for his
unlikely bid.
He's positively huge in cyberspace, a virtual nation teeming
to embrace Paul's leave-me-the-hell-alone approach. Paul's
MySpace page lists more than 12,000 friends, trailing only
Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt
Romney among Republican presidential hopefuls. That popularity
helped catapult Paul to victories in several online polls after
the debate. And lately he's been the No. 1 search subject at
technorati.com, a blog search engine.
Philosophy of freedom
Paul also has raised enough real-world money to stay in the
race for a while. Thanks to a network of donors cultivated
through years of nationally distributed libertarian writings,
Paul has out-raised some of the more "mainstream" candidates.
His $640,000 first-quarter haul placed him a respectable --
if distant -- sixth among the 10 announced Republican candidates.
Enough to finance a winning campaign? Unlikely. But probably
enough to ensure Paul's continued presence as a sort of Ghost
of Conservatism Past, causing uncomfortable moments for any
other candidate trying to claim the conservative mantle.
And as the war becomes less popular, as conservative Republican
primary voters wonder just what the Bush administration was
doing nationalizing education policy (through the No Child
Left Behind Act) and expanding entitlements (through the Medicare
prescription drug benefit), Paul will tout his small-government
bona fides.
"I'm very reluctant to have any grandiose predictions.
... I don't know what the future will bring," Paul said. "I
know the message is powerful. There's no limitations on the
philosophy of freedom. People are begging for it."
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