Ron Paul is on fire. That is my opinion of his performance in this first GOP debate. Of course, I’m biased. Feel free to make your own judgement after watching the entire debate below. There were a few stellar moments from Ron Paul, including his answer when asked about legalizing drugs, and his answer about being the “Founding Father” of the Tea Party movement regarding Michele Bachmann.
I don’t agree with a lot of what Herman Cain says, but I have to admit he has charisma that will give him a lot of support. Expect the other candidates to start attacking him if his poll numbers go up. I think they will.
Gary Johnson did very well with a few odd moments. If I’m looking at him through social-con or neo-con eyes voting for him would likely be impossible. He did come off as a very honest “make the hard choices” candidate. Sort of like Cain without the charisma.
Pawlenty seems to be channeling John McCain a bit too much and Santorum just comes off as angry. Both seem to be going after the George W. Bush voting block; however small that is these days.
Last week Donald Rumsfeld went on the Opie and Anthony radio show to promote his new book, “”. It was an odd interview to begin with. Opie and Anthony are not known for their hard-hitting political interviews, but rather, numerous fart and sex jokes. Comedian Louis C.K. was in studio during the interview, and decided to ask Donald Rumsfeld a humorous question. You can listen to the interview here:
Compare that interview with the rather hard-hitting tough journalistic interview Judge Andrew Napolitano did last night with The other Donald:
And here is the Judge after the interview, saying that Rumsfeld described the interview as the “toughest” he’s had. I’m thinking he wishes he’d rather be asked if he’s a lizard by Louis CK than be interviewed by the Judge again.
Here’s Ron Paul, again showing his justified outrage at the TSA with Neil Cavuto earlier today. They also discussed tax cuts and public ownership of GM.
Well, to be quite fair Ron Paul said they talked about introducing a bill to end or audit the Fed on their first day in office together. Here is the entire long and excellent interview with David Asman on Fox Business channel.
Ron Paul also talks about becoming the new Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy with the GOP taking control of the House.
The subcommittee’s jurisdiction includes domestic monetary policy, and agencies which directly or indirectly affect domestic monetary policy, multilateral development lending institutions such as the World Bank, coins and currency including operations of the Bureau of the Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and international trade and finance including all matters pertaining to the International Monetary Fund and the Export-Import Bank.
I don’t think there could be a more perfect subcommittee for Ron Paul.
Later in the interview Judge Napolitano joins the discussion. Check it out below.
Once again Jim DeMint and Ron Paul have formed a coalition. They have worked hard on getting a full Federal Reserve audit and share many commonalities on economic issues. Now they come together for a campaign fund raiser for Ron Paul’s son, Rand Paul in Kentucky. Hmmm I wonder if DeMint and Ron Paul discussed any plans of forming another coalition for 2012 as suggested in our recent poll.
In less than one hour from the time of this writing, Rand Paul and Jack Conway will appear together with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday for a nationally televised debate. The debate has no rules and will comprise the first half-hour of the show. It airs at 9am Eastern on most local Fox affiliates. The latest polls still show Rand Paul with a lead in the race.
Rand Paul appeared again on Hannity’s TV show the other day to give an update on his campaign. It was another good appearance. Of note is Rand’s insistence on supporting legislation for reading the bills before passing them as brought forth by DownsizeDC.
What if there was a third choice for reality-seekers? Something other than the red pill or the blue pill. What if there was a purple pill? The purple pill is the gateway drug to liberty for those that aren’t quite ready to have an ice-cold-water-on-the-face wake-up call. It is a soothing alarm clock that gradually opens eyes to the truth. Rand Paul is the purple pill.
He already has his foot in the libertarian door thanks to his father, Ron Paul. This gives him legitimacy and support from many of his father’s more libertarian-minded supporters. Yet he softens what many Hannity, Beck, and Limbaugh conservatives would call the crazy edges of his father. Ron Paul is a true red pill. There is no doubt about that.
Rand represents someone conservatives, Republicans, and even neo-conservatives can be comfortable supporting without wounding their own interventionist-minded pride. This becomes a problem for the more steadfast libertarians among the Ron Paul faithful who demand an A+ on the libertarian purity test.
Following Rand Paul’s radio interview earlier this week, Sean Hannity had him in studio for a TV interview last night. As usual, Rand knocked it out of the park, demonstrating perfectly why he won the primary and has won support from libertarians, independents, and conservatives.
Mike Miller and I (Marc Gallagher) are attending CPAC over the next few days. This is our first update from the conference. It’s difficult making your way through throngs of people wanting to hand you literature that completely goes against the philosophy of liberty. The Campaign For Liberty row in the Exhibit Hall is an oasis.
We arrived at the hotel around 11am, checked in and headed to the C4L booth to pick up our “credentials”. We then wandered around aimlessly for a bit looking for the “XPAC Lounge” to get good seats for the live Freedom Watch show set for 12:30pm.
Glenn Beck moved from CNN to Fox early in 2009. He now proclaims without hesitation that he considers himself a libertarian. Many long-time, more purist libertarians scoff at that self-characterization. Also last year a new web-only show began airing on Fox’s online video site called “Freedom Watch”. This is where many of the purist libertarians hang out. Judge Andrew Napolitano is the host and he has regular guests that include Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, Jacob Hornberger, Robert Higgs, Tom Woods, and many more.
Back in December 2009 ABC’s John Stossel switched to Fox and began his own hour long show on the Fox Business Channel. His show is probably somewhere in between Beck’s moderate form of libertarianism and Judge Napolitano’s purist libertarianism on Freedom Watch. Does this mean libertarianism is no longer a dirty word among establishment politicos? Not quite yet, I’m afraid.
The Judge’s show is still only available online and replays are aired on Fox Radio on the weekends. Beck’s claims of libertarianism are difficult to reconcile with his stance on torture and foreign intervention; although, to his credit he has softened his position on foreign wars in the last year. Stossel’s show is on the Fox Business Channel which isn’t the juggernaut in ratings the Fox News Channel has become. Still these three shows could signal a slow evolution toward making libertarianism more mainstream in America.
If you’ve never seen Freedom Watch you can check out all the past shows at FreedomWatchonFox.com. As for Stossel you can watch each of the four shows he’s had so far at the bottom of this article. His show is must-see TV for free marketers and libertarian-minded people every where.
Liberty Maven
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