Should Ron Paul Make A 3rd Party Run?

Should Ron Paul run 3rd party?  That’s a question that the mainstream media has been asking for some time now but unlike the media I wasn’t obsessing over the issue over and over again before a single vote was cast.  It’s a legitimate question seeing as how Ron Paul’s views don’t fit either of the two major party’s views perfectly but could fit either party’s platform well enough to attract voters all across the political spectrum.

I’ve been thinking for some time now that a Ron Paul/Jesse Ventura ticket would be a pretty formidable ticket — IF they were given a fair chance in the media to be interviewed, discussed, and allowed a chance to debate Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.  There is no reason to believe that any 3rd party candidate no matter how great or popular would get a fair shake or that Ron Paul would even seriously consider making a 3rd party run.  However, I would argue it might just be what this country needs!

For one thing, it’s been a dream of mine for some time to watch Ron Paul go toe-to-toe with President Obama.  Let me tell you, if I had the extra money on-hand I would without a doubt purchase that two hour (or how ever long) debate on Pay-per-view in a heartbeat and I’m not even joking.

Against John McCain, Barack Obama was able to essentially deflect away any criticism coming from Senator McCain just by smiling and shaking his head.  But the thing is, McCain is a lousy debater and comes off as too cold as he avoids eye contact more times than not and blinks a ton indicating that he’s quite stressed.  None of the four men (now three as of 4/10) are bad debaters though.  Santorum, while coming off as a bigot, has a pretty good delivery and is forceful enough with the moderator to buy him more time to deliver his message.  Gingrich is an idea man (not always ideas I agree with but still) and has a way of getting the audience on his side typically by abusing the moderators or by giving little, succinct answers that get straight to the point.  Even Romney has great comebacks and gives eye contact (albeit with a “Who farted?” look on his face but whatever).  Ron Paul though, despite his run-on sentences (I love you Ron but it’s true) really does a great job of adjusting the tone of his voice to dictate to the audience when he’s about to hit the climax or main point of what he’s trying to say.  That and he also weaves traps for his opponents because he knows history so well and is able to rub it in that they clearly do not.  It’s really quite impressive, advanced age or not.

But besides it being a dream debate, it’s also an opportunity to not only create more exposure to the Liberty platform for which Ron Paul stands, it would also be a chance for Ron Paul to expose Barack Obama’s lousy record on foreign policy, debt, unemployment, and that he wants to eliminate taxes and substitute it with nothing instead of whining about Warren Buffett’s secretary that is estimated to make anywhere between $200,000-$500,000 a year but whatever.  It would really be a chance to show some real contrast between himself and the two status quo puppets.

Some people are legitimately concerned about what a 3rd party run would do to Rand Paul’s political career since in all likelihood barring the biggest upset in US political history Obama is very likely to end up winning re-election.  However, I would argue that with a  Ron Paul/Jesse Ventura run on the Libertarian ticket would not only bring light to Ron Paul’s views strengthening this Liberty Movement but perhaps might change American Politics to the point that people stop voting for Party and start voting on principle and Common Sense.

Update (4/12/12): I will say that in terms of Rand Paul’s career possibly being on the line that I’m not so much concerned about him getting voted out for a few reasons. 1) Kentucky is a pretty conservative state as a whole; 2) I think the more people are exposed to the message of following the Constitution, the more the message will grow with people which I believe will actually help Rand Paul’s chances of re-election not hurt; and 3) even if he was voted out doesn’t mean he couldn’t run for a different position in a different district (14th District of TX perhaps? 🙂 ) and plus the fact that Ron Paul is inspiring a number of people to run for office so no matter what happens with Rand Paul in the future, the R3volution will continue!

A Letter to South Carolina Voters

Dear South Carolina Voter,

As we are all aware, your state is up next in this 2012 Republican Nominating process.  So far in this race we have seen only two of the remaining six candidates stand out above the rest.  One is the frontrunner, Establishment pick, and Chosen One, Mitt Romney.  The other is the anti-Establishment, anti-status quo candidate who the mainstream media will try to tell you has no chance of winning the nomination much less to defeat President Obama in November.

I’m here to tell you, that is a lie!  While I congratulate Governor Romney for making history by becoming the first candidate in history that wasn’t an incumbent to win both Iowa and New Hampshire and that certainly deserves some respect proving what a great organization his campaign has managed to build in this 2012 election campaign.

However, to think that a candidate who has finished 3rd and 2nd place respectively, who continues to show impressive fundraising ability with his monthly “Money Bombs”, and who just as recently as January 8th was shown to be in a statistical tie with the President trailing by just a single point 46-45 nationally; to think that candidate who has done that well would not have a chance to be elected is simply absurd and wishful thinking.

The goal of this blog is not necessarily to convert you to become a Ron Paul supporter even though it would make my day if I did.  My goal is simply to ask that you do not fall in line with Mitt Romney just because the media tells you he is the only one that can win.  When you’re making your vote on January 21st, I urge that you will make your choice based on your principles and who you believe would do the best job of getting our nation back on track.  Not because you heard on CNN or Fox that Mitt Romney is the “presumptive nominee” and you think that because the media said it, well it must be true!  The problem with that logic is that 1) we’re only two states in and 2) other voters would like the chance to make a meaningful vote just as you’re getting that chance to do on January 21st.  I’ll leave you with one last question and that is: Suppose the South Carolina Primary were in April, May, or June, wouldn’t you like the opportunity to cast a vote that actually means something towards deciding the nominee instead of the process being a foregone conclusion?  Just something to think about…

Sincerely,

A Concerned Voter

Update (1/19/12): Just received news that Mitt Romney didn’t actually win Iowa!  So much for making history…

http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/gop-candidate-rick-santorum-wins-iowa-two-weeks-af/nGTb6/

Why the Media should be ignored in favor of Common Sense

There seems to be a common misconception floating around the mainstream media that anyone other than Mitt Romney that would run against President Obama in 2012 would be clobbered therefore making all five of those candidates not named Romney ‘unelectable’ by default.

Yes, the same man who has been on both sides of every major issue and can’t seem to get much over 25% support from the American people no matter how much money is raised from the Wall Street “fat cats” or how much the know-it-all pundits try to claim that Romney is the only candidate that can beat President Obama in November.

The problem with these pundits and other news media figures is that what they’re doing is frankly very irresponsible and unprofessional.  In a way they’re essentially picking our candidate for us.  Whether it is intentional or not is a different subject but it does the other five candidates not named Romney a huge disservice.  While I do not believe that all of the candidates remaining are viable options for the Presidency of the United States personally for various reasons, the fact that mainstream continues to program the American public over and over again that no one but Romney could challenge Obama in a general election is a complete falsehood and I’ll tell you why.

1) The opinions about who is a viable Presidential Candidate comes down to two things (roughly): fundraising and head to head polls against Obama.  While both criteria seem reasonable, I have to wonder if the reason why one particular candidate does so well in fundraising and others do not or why one candidate favors well in a head to head match-up with President Obama and others do not, I have to wonder if the media hype fed to the public on a daily basis might have a little something to do with creating the current perception held by many Americans.  And honestly this scares me as an avid Ron Paul supporter because if people are told often enough and long enough that a candidate such as Ron Paul doesn’t have a chance of winning because he is too much of a ‘kook’ that is unelectable then I’m concerned that people simply won’t bother to show up at the polls if they feel he doesn’t have a chance or worse yet “fall in line” with the Chosen One, the establishment pick, Mitt Romney.

2) Why does it really matter how a candidate does in head to head match-ups with the President a year out from the actual election?  I think of those polls as a Preseason Football or Basketball top 25 poll.  They’re fun to look at and speculate about but considering the dynamic of the Republican Primary so far with candidates rising and falling every 2-4 weeks, who is to say that a candidate couldn’t make up ground by exposing his opposition, good debate performances, and simply not doing anything stupid that may harm his chances.  Is that really such a unreasonable possibility that a candidate would be able to not only close a wide gap with the President but perhaps even win in November 2012?

3) The Independent vote.  Contrary to popular belief within the media, Ron Paul, who picked up a whopping 44% of the independent vote at the Iowa Caucus and is likely to continue to dominate the independent vote throughout the Republican Nominating process would be an ideal choice candidate in a General Election as he would steal a lot of independent votes and perhaps even some dissatisfied Democrats away from President Obama making for a very interesting race for the White House!  Despite that though, the mainstream media would have you believe that some of his stances on the issues such as wanting to end the War on Drugs and completely bring home all the troops from all around the globe simply isn’t mainstream, therefore making him ‘unelectable’.  But the fact is anyone who can attract independents, the same group that continues to grow on a yearly basis, then that candidate should almost certainly have a pretty decent chance of winning any election that that person is running in.

4) Finally, considering that the unemployment rate has hovered at 8.5% or higher pretty much the entire time that President Obama has been in office and the fact that the debt ceiling has been raised from 10.7 Trillion Dollars back in 2008 to over 15 Trillion as it stands today causing major inflation in prices yet little to no change in the American worker’s paycheck.  There’s reason to believe that Obama has not been the “Change we can believe in” as he had promised throughout the 2007 – 2008 campaign.  The fact is, there’s a lot of disgruntled former Obama supporters out there who don’t feel like Obama has kept his promises in changing the status quo in Washington, bringing home the troops from Iraq at a pace of one to two brigades per month which would have the troops completely out within sixteen months as he promised or the fact that Obama has done nothing to end the expensive and useless War on Drugs.  A Drug War that disproportionately affects Black Americans more than any other race.  In fact, according to this website http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/64, in the state of California alone, Blacks are 12x more likely to be imprisoned for a marijuana felony arrest than any other group.  It’s no wonder when you hear facts like these that many liberals, independents, and even the same Blacks who voted for Obama at a 96% rate in 2008 are not going to be voting for Barack Obama again or simply won’t show up at the polls at all in November.  Now that history has been made, there are many reasons to believe that no matter who Obama is facing, his own record may very well be his biggest adversary and reason why any one of the six remaining Republican candidates could potentially be a legitimate threat in evicting President Obama from the White House in 2012.