Oh dear. I’ll give Wick the benefit of the doubt and assume he was unaware of this and this when he made his donation to Ron Paul, and that he has since asked for the money back. I choose to believe that Wick doesn’t buy into Paul’s obsession with the Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations and his belief in some sort of undefined international banking conspiracy (which, conveniently, involves The Jews). I also choose to believe that Wick does not in any way agree with the weirdo borderline-racist rants in Paul’s newsletters (see the linked articles for more).

Trey, I respect and generally agree with the views you have expressed on this blog. But with Ron Paul, we’re not talking about mere “personal flaws” and I think you know that. As I noted above, his longtime fixation on worldwide banking and political conspiracies goes directly to how he would govern. This is a guy who allowed newsletters to go out under his name FOR OVER A DECADE that alleged, among other things, that Martin Luther King was a pedophile (see the links in my previous post for the source). Paul has not denied the authenticity of these newsletters although he has (somewhat lamely) denied authorship. If we accept that he didn’t write them and didn’t know the contents, what does that say about his managerial skills? What does it say about his judgment? These “personal flaws”, as you call them, actually matter.

Of course, many of Paul’s supporters are well-meaning voters who may have liked what they saw after watching a couple of Republican debates. My sense is that many of those early supporters fell away after some of Paul’s wackier views began to come out (even most of the folks at Reason Magazine have turned on him). That said, there is a reason Paul’s campaign has attracted a parade of white supremacists, 9-11 Truthers, college trust fund babies and assorted cranks. It is because they see a fellow traveller. I might agree with some of Paul’s policy positions, but I don’t want to be associated with those people or for that matter Ron Paul’s “personal flaws”.

Neal

When I watched the Rupublican debates, Ron Paul was the only one that ever made any sense. The mainstream media (Chris Matthews Wolf Blitzer et al) were so anxious to paint him as a kook. It has been strange so far with the media informng us on who we should vote for.

My question to you is, are you comparing the sanity of Ron Paul to that of a George W. Bush, Tom Delay, and Zell Miller or is your comparison to some Democrat?

Hats off for Trey for sticking up for his candidate.