Ron Paul "Could Actually Win"

So says The Week.

The conventional wisdom is that Paul stands no legitimate chance, says Drew Ivers, a member of the state central committee of Iowa's Republican Party ... But 2012 could be different. Paul is "in the epicenter of the three or four or five the most critical and controversial issues in our nation today," including government spending, the war, and the financial crisis. "That's how snowballs develop...". 


Dr. Ivers (PhD plant geneticist with a second masters in theology) is Paul's Iowa campaign chairman. He is heavily credentialed in the  art of caucus politics. He helped handle some winning campaigns as well as losers (Robertson, Buchanan, and, in 2008, Dr. Paul.)  He was a founder of  the Iowa Christian Coalition, now known as Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition.

Make what you will of the relationship between  Paul and the evangelicals. I've hinted at my personal disappointment with the  new coziness, but it's rock-solid that without evangelical support in the Iowa GOP caucus process, a candidate goes nowhere.

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I hope Dr. Ivers'  enthusiasm for Paul will prove to be more than the rosiness mandatory for all political operatives about their candidates' chances,  that the new Iowa Paul movement can overcome the obstacles:

--Iowa has its full share of big-government conservatives, aka the WalMart vote.  These are Obama's bitter clingers who, at the same time, want their social security checks, their Medicare, and, crucially, their lucrative farm subsidies. Libertarian talk scares their pants off. These are the Gingrich/Trump/Romney voters.

-- While Iowans claim to be among the best educated people in the country,  the definition of that achievement can be loose. It's wonderful that Paul discusses the peril of fiat money and the tyranny of the Federal Reserve Board. That becomes politically pointless, however, when you can't find one in a dozen main-streeters capable of three coherent and unrehearsed minutes on either one.

--We're hearing things like Obama having no business in Libya because Qaddafi's oil goes to Europe, that is, gas prices in Strawberry Point are not affected by world oil supplies.


--The same principle applies to foreign policy. Can most of us find Syria on a map?  Explain the high price we pay for our support of the government of Israel?  Accept that there are limits to the morality and usefulness of American "power projection," even as we "support out troops?"

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All of which suggests to me that Paul's most formidable task is as much educational as political, and the remaining eight months offer precious little time to accomplish much enlightenment, meaning the Paul race must excel at manipulating symbols. And that is what got us in this mess in the first place.

Still, I wish him well, and I'll hustle support as best I can. We may be beyond the point at which we can vote our way out of our large problems, but we might as well try.

H/T Roberta

Maybe no one from the Black P. Stone Nation applied?

An AP writer decided to make things vivid for us in his report of the latest "national security" job swaps. He writes that  President Obama  wanted  "maximum continuity, installing road tested warriors steeped in his policies."

You're not allowed to remember that Candidate Obama labeled such Beltway old-timers  as  architects of the failed policies of the past. That he promised a massive overhaul of the Washington power structure.

You are forbidden to observe that his actual accomplishment is a rearrangement of butts in the ash tray. Because Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
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Ben Bernanke and Stephen King

This is one of those rare days when watching an electric teevee should not be considered a sign of arrested development.

At 2:15 p.m.  (Eastern Commune Time) the first-ever news conference by a sitting commissar of the Federal Reserve Board will go on the air.  Couple of drive-by points:

--No one is being discourteous enough to suggest that Ron Paul has rattled Bernanke and his courtiers enough to force them to crack the windows a little. A news conference every three months is a long way from a professional audit. However, it's at least a tiny advance from our magic money gurus' insistence that 300 million American have no need to know a damned thing about turbocharged printing presses.

--Ben's dog and pony show will, without the slightest doubt,  tell us most things are fine and that he has a plan to fix the few faltering parts.

Sorry, but that makes me think of digging up the Pet Semetary and not noticing that the cat walks funny.
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Ron Paul makes it official

No one is surprised. The good doctor is to announce something in Des Moines this afternoon, and if it isn't formation of a White House exploratory committee I'll kiss your arse on the steps of the Cato Institute and give you time to get Chris Mathews and his camera crew  to the ceremony.

Ron Paul's 2008 caucus vote  was  9+ per cent. Without Gary Johnson and a couple of even more minor candidates making libertarian noises, Paul would do better this time for three reasons:  (1) He's learned from his 2008 organizational mistakes, mainly frittering away money. (2) He is actively courting the evangelical right with a harder pro-life position. (3)  Libertarian thinking has become less outre after two Obama years which gave even the unwashed a glimpse of what a statist future really holds.

If Johnson perseveres, he'll get a good  measure of the Paul vote. Cain and Trump will also get pieces of it. If we use the caucus vote to measure the advance of  liberty thinking, adding the Paul and Moore tallies will probably be the best we can do.

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I'll jump the gun a little and make the day's second edit of your vital list of  Air Force 1 aspirants.   (Link fixed.)

Rand is out.  He  was never much more than a velleity among the small set which prefers younger libertarian heads,  balmed with Brylcreem.



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UPDATE:  Ron Paul did the expected.