I normally would not care about these debates as much, but it is rare that someone like Ron Paul is running for president and getting some attention. Here are a few random thoughts on the debate in Orlando, Florida.
The first notable thing is that Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, was permitted to participate in the debate. He is no Ron Paul, but he does have a lot of libertarian leanings and it is nice to see someone else on the stage who is at least decent and makes some sense.
It is interesting to compare the debates from this year to the debates from 4 years ago. The candidates of this election cycle sound much more fiscally conservative and anti-big government. I don’t believe most of them, but it is still notable. I think one difference is who is occupying the White House. The candidates in 2007/ 2008, with the exception of Ron Paul, felt compelled to defend Bush’s abysmal record.
On the last question about choosing a running mate on the stage, it was nice of Gary Johnson to pick Ron Paul. I like Paul’s answer to the question too, but I thought he should have acknowledged Johnson as at least being the closest one to his views. Another addition to Paul’s answer could have been him stepping outside of the box and naming a few potential running mates not on the stage. If he had mentioned Lew Rockwell, Tom Woods, Robert Murphy, Judge Napolitano, etc., I’m sure a few people out there would have “googled” those names out of interest.
It was a little disappointing to see such a short discussion on foreign policy. I always enjoy seeing the contrast of Ron Paul against the other candidates and we didn’t get to see that in this debate. It is important for Paul to keep making this distinction.
Overall, a lot of the debate was more of the same. But I am going to enjoy it because we are not likely to see another Ron Paul running for president as a major party candidate any time soon. I can only hope that if Ron Paul does not get the Republican nomination that the Libertarian Party puts up someone good this time.
Good Grief man…what are you thinking here !!!
Sure Ron Paul is hands down the best choice, but even as a registered Independent I am compelled to commit to whomever the Republican nominee is simply because Obama is sooooo…BAD.
Only if polls showed him losing by a record setting landslide, would I feel comfortable casting my vote to make an intellectual Libertarian point.
I live in NV where my vote may actually count…as our country swirls around the edge of the bowl about to be flushed…this would seem not the time to be entertaining the notion of possible third party candidates, but rather to direct our energy to obtaining the most fiscally conservative Republican we can…and take them all the way to the White House.
Anonymous, how old are you? If you’re over 18, and have voted before, do you have any long-term memory? Your line of thinking is exactly what the current two-party system thrives on. The constant back and forth from one party to the other, because the last one was “so bad.” All the while, you’ve missed the point that they’re really one and the same. Obama has continued in lockstep all of Bush’s policies. Bailouts. Wars. Loss of individual freedoms.
And all of the Republican candidates other than Ron Paul are a bunch of phonies. At the very least, look at their track records. If you think they’ll actually act in alignment with any of their libertarian-style lip-service once they were in office, then you haven’t been paying attention for the last 100 years.
Thanks Scott. That was well said. The only other candidate that might do what he is saying is Gary Johnson. However, even he is not nearly as good as Ron Paul on all of the issues. All of the other candidates are horrible.
Yes, it is sad that many think a vote “outside” the 2 party system is a “wasted vote”. Without these wasted votes nothing will change…same self- serving game, just different faces.
It ammuses me that someone would say that Ron Paul is more libertarian than Gary Johnson. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Gary Johnson is easily the “better” libertarian and fiscal conservative. It would be great to have a Paul/Johnson ticket so we could have 16 years of libertarianism in the US, but that’s highly unlikely.
In the mean time, you so-called libertarians need to bone up on Johnson before making wild assumptions.