Comments on: Florida Debate Wrap-Up And Commentary

By: Riz

Riz — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:51:51 +0000

Should you even be commenting on the American economy? You seem to have a really poor understanding of what Ron Paul is trying to say.

Oh! And don’t worry about Ron Paul not surviving. In this endurance game, Ron Paul’s campaign is by far the healthiest.

So when’s the next money bomb?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:42:28 +0000

JDG,

You need to delete the 07 and 09 numbers first if you’re talking about 2008.

The real foreign policy numbers for 2008 are:

$696 billion (defense budget + Iraq and Afghanistan supplemental)
$36.2 billion (State Department + Foreign Aid)
$9.4 billion (Nuclear Weapons Program)
$45-60 billion (Intelligence) Note: Some of this overlaps with defense and state budgets.

Total: $801.6 billion at most

Now I’m not saying that there are not cuts that can and need to be made in foreign policy, but to say that’s the cure of all of our ills is a bit disingenuous.

By: JDG

JDG — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:45:23 +0000

Certainly a Trillion Dollars is not out of the question.

Our 2008 Defense Budget was:
$ 481.4 Billion Baseline
$ 93.4 Billion Supplemental (07)
$ 141.7 Billion Supplemental (08)
$ 50 Billion Allowance (09)
Total = $ 766.5 Billion

That alone is getting real close to a Trillion Dollars my (in the dark) friend.
Don’t forget about Billions more that are appropriated to other departments like the Department of Energy which work on several military projects and funding to Universities. Then there are the Black Projects which are funded from thin air.

By: Jeff Molby

Jeff Molby — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:16:27 +0000

Doug, do you still maintain that RP said we could “save a trillion dollars”?

By: Doug Mataconis

Doug Mataconis — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:02:38 +0000

Nitro,

I’ve always been fairly clear about how I thought this campaign would turn out.

1/14/2007:

http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/01/14/a-moment-of-hubris-on-the-ron-paul-for-president-campaign/

1/17/2007:

http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/01/17/further-thoughts-on-the-ron-paul-for-president-campaign/

2/22/2007:

http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/02/22/why-ron-paul-probably-wont-win/

By: Nitroadict

Nitroadict — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:39:05 +0000

Regardless of what will happen, there will always be those who claimed to have predicted the outcome far before it happens, despite their own previous words predicting something else entirely under different circumstances, made under different assumptions & observations. Typical punditry, in other words.

By: Rolland

Rolland — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 08:33:28 +0000

Mataconis,you are a moron.

The candidate that proved himself as a lier in the debates was McCain who bragged about his economic prowess but showed just how ignorant of economics he truly is by his complete inability to answer Dr Paul’s question to him. He was completely clueless, and all he could do was name names, some of whom sit on the very board that Paul asked if it should be discontinued.

Your assessment of the debate proves just how stupid you are as well. Not surprising that you are a McCain supporter.

By: RobertO

RobertO — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 07:03:01 +0000

Ron Paul is the only person to lead the US out of it’s current funk. The USA is broken, Ron Paul is the only who can Fix it. Wake up America and smell what the neo cons are cooking. If you don’t vote for Ron Paul you are doomed to spend all of you phony money overseas to protect your oil interests, instead of helping you economy at home. Get on with it, use you brain for good instead of stupid. You’re last hope is Ron Paul, vote for him…
then again if you do vote for one of the establishment’s candidates, my Canadian Dollar will buy a really nice peace of real estate down south one of these days… Wake up kids save your country!!! Vote Ron Paul for gods sake…

By: Kevin K

Kevin K — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:58:18 +0000

You ar right about Dr Pauls “discourse” he does say a lot in a short amount of time. Because he does, its difficult to absorb much of what he says, as we are conditioned to have “short attention spans”.
But as the other posts ahve mentioned, the message is indeed a good one. One we should be brave enough to embrace because no one is offering anything better. Our nations soveriegnty is at stake. Its being taken away through our money system. Once the money fails, we all suffer and our nation is purchased by the world. Sound interesting? Its happening in front of our eyes. This may very well be our last chance to stop it. Peace

By: Linda

Linda — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:54:31 +0000

Ron Paul will be a great leader and president!
All the other candidates both rep./dem. are ego ridden clever politicians. Ron Paul is the only intelligent candidate.
Here is a passage from Eckhart Tolle’s book “A New Earth”, that truly defines Congressman Ron Paul: The ego may be clever, but it is not intelligent. Cleverness pursues its own little aims. Intelligence sees the larger whole in which all things are connected. Cleverness is motivated by self-interest, and it is extremely short-sighted. Cleverness divides; intelligence includes.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:10:52 +0000

Oh, by the way, don’t say Ron Paul was rambling when answering the question about if the government should even stimulate the economy. Just because you don’t understand Misesian monetary theory doesn’t mean it’s not related to government involvement in the economy.

By: Ken H

Ken H — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:19:06 +0000

I doubt there will be any more primary debates after the ones in California as I expect both major parties to have settled on their respective nominees after the February 5 voting is completed.

By: UCrawford

UCrawford — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:00:32 +0000

Jeff,

I think Ron Paul is actually a very smart person, I like his ideas, and I think he’s generally a pretty honorable person. But I think he’s somebody who’s not a very good judge of other peoples’ character or abilities. Everybody’s got their weaknesses and I honestly believe that’s Ron Paul’s. He’s not incompetent when it comes to understanding economics or legislation himself, which is why he’s a good legislator in the House, but when it comes to assembling a staff to whom he can delegate authority I believe that he falls short. And the ability to choose the right people to delegate to is critical with a president, which is why I’ve soured on Ron Paul in this race…especially since he hasn’t come up with specifics on how he plans to implement these ideas he has.

A good man, but an ineffective leader basically.

By: Kevin Houston

Kevin Houston — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:49:01 +0000

Ah Ha!

Here is Dr. Paul in his own words on why he asked that particular question….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu-tg1kQ8dk

You will have to wait until the end for the scene in the parking lot.

When McCain touted his economic advidors, he named several people who are on the PWG. Ron Paul spotted an opportunity to trip McCain up, and he did.

IMHO, Ron decided on his question up there on the stage. The quesiton was designed to show that McCain doesn’t have the foggiest notion about who these people are, or what they are doing in the stock market.

A lot of what the PWG does, would be called collusion, or “Insider Trading” if it was done by any one of us.

Later.

By: Jeff Molby

Jeff Molby — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:12:59 +0000

I’d say that it would be the second choice more than anything…the Paul campaign has never, to my mind, given any indication that they put much thought into subtlety or long-term strategy.

It sure seems like it, but he's a pretty smart guy, so I'm very hesitant to assume he's incompetent. It might be true, but I'm gonna wait until it's all over before I pass judgment.