Ron Paul's candidacy

mheslep

Neither Congress nor the President can dictate policy, unless ...


Unless they are willing to go to the mat and shut the government down. In such a case of course a President Paul could end all foreign aid, or any other positive action of the government by simply vetoing the aggregated appropriation bill until he gets what he wants. I submit there is little question Paul would close the government as long as necessary to get his promised ~$1T cuts. Some years into his term a Congress could beat him up enough politically to override, but any negative action of a recently elected President is politically impossible to overcome. So I'll completely reverse this one assertion and say that if a President Paul is elected it is guaranteed that much government based foreign aid ends.

I don't know. Of course the President can not unilaterally overturn the Federal Reserve Act. He requires positive action by the Congress, new legislation to do that. He does however have the power to appoint Fed Chairmen, so he could certainly appoint someone that will pursue only tight money policy, open the Fed books to auditing, etc, somebody like Jim Grant. The appointment is subject to Senate approval, but again for a newly elected P. he will get his way for awhile, and even if not, as the current President has demonstrated, he can do rolling recess appointments.

A newly elected President might push that through the Senate, as there is already substantial agreement. The usual defense of catering to the rich won't stick to a President Paul.

Gokul43201

Paul's now in the lead in Iowa (in 3 out of the last 4 polls): http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...mary-1588.html

Evo

He's losing to Romney in the latest poll.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...1bb3a6ef85b.a1

John Creighto

He'll still need some congressional support. Congress can overturn a veto with 2/3rds suppot.

mheslep

As I said above, that never happens to newly elected presidents.

Evo

It does if they're crazy.

mheslep

Well that's why he's not going to be President.

mheslep

Given many of Ron Paul's views have a large following, but (IMO) has a nutty factor, I don't understand why Gary Johnson has not caught on instead. Johnson is the former twice elected governor of New Mexico who holds very similar libertarian views, is not nutty, and he has executive experience both in government and business, unlike Paul.
http://2012.republican-candidates.org/Johnson/

Evo

They're saying it's not too late for new entries. Why duke it out from the beginning when you can let the first group kill each other off, then come in fresh?

There's got to be a new influx, don't you think?

This first batch most certainly can't be the best the GOP has to offer.

ThomasT

Johnson pulled out of the GOP race and will be running as the Libertarian Party candidate.

He was excluded from all but two of the GOP debates, because his poll numbers were low. His poll numbers were low, I would guess, because he didn't get sufficient exposure to allow even the possibility that they might increase significantly. Why is that?

mheslep

Well Johnson has been in from nearly the beginning, just didn't poll high enough to get in all of the debates. Anyway, yeah its too late now for brand new faces. A Santorum or a Huntsman could surge with a campaign already on the ground. A large chunk of the delegates get committed in the primaries to somebody in March, 3 months. I agree with Intrade: this is Romney's race now that Newt's bubble broke, 68% chance. Romney's serious, he has his pace, is not prone to mistakes. If he picks a strong VP*, and there are several very strong candidates, I think he beats the President if the economy stays flat.
http://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/co...tractId=652757

What's Obama going to do on that score BTW, Biden being a heartbeat away an all that? President Biden?

ThomasT

I recall your caution against these threads on politicians degenerating into name-calling.

Paul's positions seem to me to be consistent with his political philosophy (libertarianism), which might in itself be viewed as extremist to a fault, but I don't think it should be characterized as crazy.

When considered wrt most of the GOP candidates, Paul doesn't seem all that crazy (or incompetent, or ill-prepared, or oportunistically slimey). But I suppose that that view isn't really saying much for Paul.

The question wrt the GOP nomination has been framed around which candidate the 'Christian right' will go for. They don't seem to be too happy with the candidates that had previously been supposed to be their obvious choices.

Romney's Mormon association is a big negative for him. Newt comes off as being too smart sometimes. Too few people are familiar with Huntsman. Paul has been around for a long time, but at the rate that he accrues new supporters he would have to be around until (I figure) the mid 2100's to actually get nominated for, much less elected to, the presidency.

Evo

Who do you think Romney would pick?

Dotini

I'm pretty sure Ron Paul is personally not overly concerned about being President. With him (and me), it's all about influencing the platform, which is obviously taking place to some extent.

Condy Rice, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, and Jeb Bush are all possibles. In the bad old days, conventions were brokered in smoke filled rooms. That's not supposed to happen these days. But if circumstances became dire enough, the party bosses and financial backers could conceivably subvert the process. All's fair in love and war.

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

mheslep

Ok as of Nov 29. I missed that, though I'd heard him say he might earlier.

Dunno, but I guess there's only room for one libertarian flag waiver inside the GOP. Right now that's Paul. I heard Johnson on air saying he visited Paul way back when, was warmly accepted until he told Paul he was going to run in the GOP upon which the "conversation quickly ended" and he was shown the door.

mheslep

Rubio. Got to be.

mheslep

Yes, exactly. He can exert a great deal of influence IF he's reasonable. That is, if he agrees not to run independent in return for getting the nominee to accept some fraction of his policies, and I hope that would be to curtail military spending, then he'll get influence. On the other hand if starts the there's no difference between the GOP and Democrats routine (as he has before) I'm running independent, then he will have zero influence on the GOP, though he'll get Obama reelected.