RON PAUL

GLORIOUSLeader

It's odd. On the one hand, RON PAUL is a good deal more conservative than most Republicans, actually believes in what he preaches, and has some good ideas when it comes to reducing government overreach into gay rights, the world military stage, etc.

On the other, RON PAUL is a loony and his ideas on what to do with the economy would be catastrophic if implemented.

I guess I'll have to go with Huntsman as my favorite GOP candidate, then.

(Here's an idea - a Obama/Huntsman ticket! They're both center-right, so it would be rather nice.)

ClockworkUniverse

On the other, RON PAUL is a loony and his ideas on what to do with the economy would be catastrophic if implemented.

Could you tell me how so?

I don't actually know what he wants to do with the economy, as I don't really follow politics that much, so all I've seen was him talking about the world military stage in a debate where, on that subject, he seemed the only sane participant. Economics could be another matter entirely for all I know.

Malkavian

Ron Paul can do the most good as a muckraker.

Honestly, politically he's a lot like Ralph Nader in that he's ineffectual but has an anti-establishment charm to him that draws in young folks like me.

Young folks that have to stop me every time I go to a public place because stonery-guy looks like someone who would vote for Ron Paul, no doubt.

glennmagusharvey

> Ron Paul can do the most good as a muckraker.

This.

He's doing a lot more good as the guy who calls out other people on their stupid/bad ideas.

Myrmidon

I will vote for Ron Paul when I'm dead.

Gelzo

I didn't expect to see much I liked from the GOP, and I certainly haven't yet. There seem to be quite a few candidates that are nuts, disorganized, or lacking in charisma.

I'm pretty damn satisfied with Obama as the president compared to quite a few other options we've had. It'll take quite a lot for me to vote for anyone else, especially considering what the other party is.

ClockworkUniverse

I really can't see how Obama's done a good job. He's done like two things in his time in office, one of which had nothing to do with the platform he ran on, and one that directly contradicted it. When he tried to do a third thing with his proposal to fix the economy, it led to his own party agreeing with the Republicans in saying "no, that's stupid." You have to screw up really badly for that to happen.

Gelzo

I give him a good amount of slack when evaluating the results he's managed considering what he has to work with. I think a lot of these things aren't really something that any one person could have fixed. And honestly, after Bush I'm just really happy to have a president that doesn't cause more problems than he solves.

I really think it's unfair to imply he's a do-nothing president. And, y'know... There's the Bin Laden thing.

Malkavian

I admit to being disappointed with his performance, though it's hardly as abysmal as right-wingers like to think. My bigger thing I see no one better running.

ClockworkUniverse

Well, he's made negative progress in terms of the whole "getting us out of those unnecessary wars" thing he liked promising.

And as for the Bin Laden thing, well, I'll give him that when they said "we found Bin Laden," he didn't go "you know what? Don't capture him."

Counterclock

@Myrmidon: Why are you fixing ballots like that?

Gelzo

Libya might not have been completely necessary to participate in from the standpoint of U.S. interests, but from what I've heard it sounds like it was something that was pretty helpful to other parts of the world and didn't involve a very large commitment of resources. I don't think it was something you could count as an obvious demonstration of poor judgement.

glennmagusharvey

Well, I don't know about you, but I currently have health insurance thanks to him.

In retrospect, perhaps he should have done more New-Deal-ish stuff back in the first two years especially when he had a 60 Democratic senators to work with (though any experienced political observer will remind you that getting Democrats to agree on something is like trying to herd cats).  The long and drawn-out fight over healthcare reform should have been replaced with a quick-and-dirty LBJ-style passage, with him taking the high road and Joe Biden wrangling wayward Dems on the measure.

I mean, the conventional wisdom at that time was that a bunch of Democrats representing conservative districts would pay dearly (by "pay dearly" I mean "lose re-election") if they voted for such (supposedly) "liberal" legislation.  Well, we had a long and drawn ought slog over said legislation during which time it got watered down anyway and the Dems still got hammered in 2010--in part due to an "enthusiasm gap" between Dem and Repub supporters.  Thus, conventional wisdom plus 20/20 hindsight suggests that they could actually have improved on those election results had they passed stronger legislation and/or acted more decisively.

That said, given the current political realities, with a R-controlled House that itself needs tea-partier support for unilateral action...I don't expect to see much get done right now.  The best I can and will hope for is good political sense in making these right-wingers pay dearly for their attempting to run the U.S. government as their ideological agenda sandbox.

Re Libya: That has probably done many wonders in helping us get back on the good side of a lot of people previously holding anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and Arab countries.

KilgoreTrout

Even though nobody's posted anything in here for almost a month and a half, I still want to weigh in on this.

Being as anti-war and pro-human-rights as I am, Ron Paul is a guy whom I'd trust to handle America's foreign policy.  When it comes to that, he seems to have all the right ideas.

I would not trust him to handle domestic policy, however.  He may have good intentions, but I personally do not believe that any country is better off with little to no taxes, without a certain amount of regulation, without the government providing services such as health care to its citizens, etc.