Ron Paul: an up-close view

Largest Paul rally to date was in Nashville on Saturday

By Tom Kovach

This is one man's up-close and personal view of presidential candidate Ron Paul (MD, MC). Although there is some news, this is mostly a commentary. To a degree, this is an "insider" view. Thus, this commentary begins with a number of disclaimers.

disclaimers

When I say an up-close view, I was literally standing next to Dr. Paul during his entire speech. That is because I provided American Sign Language interpretation for the event, as seen in this YouTube video. (Until a few months ago, ASL interpretation was my full-time job.) The request for interpretation came from a local event organizer (and friend) Theresa Harmon, founder of Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Policies. (When I ran for Congress last year, TnRIP was the first of several organizations to offer an endorsement.)

Although Congressman Paul is currently only seeking the Republican Party nomination, there is talk of the possibility of his being nominated by the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party. (He was the LP candidate for president in the 1988 election.) I am the state PR coordinator for the Constitution Party of Tennessee (CPOT). The national CP nominating convention is several months prior to the Republican convention next year; so, it is possible that Dr. Paul could become the candidate on more than one party's ballot line. (In the past — when I was director of operations for the National Veterans Coalition — I have publicly supported WND columnist Dr Jerome Corsi for president on the Constitution Party ballot line. Although I still think that Dr. Corsi would make a great president, he has declined the NVC invitation to become the CP nominee. If he should decide to reconsider at some future point, then CP politics could become even more interesting.) Here are a couple of other tidbits: 1) the city where I grew up in south Texas is within Congressman Paul's district, 2) Dr. Paul is the only candidate of which I am aware that insisted on having an ASL interpreter at an event in Nashville. (There is a large Deaf community in this city. Liberals talk about caring for people with disabilities; but, Dr. Paul put his care into action.)

and now, the rest of the story...

With the above disclaimers in mind, here is a statement about the Ron Paul rally from CPOT chairwoman Joan Castle. "Ron Paul's speech on Saturday contained the principles that the Constitution Party stands for. It was a clear, concise and eloquent message of liberty, peace, prosperity, and the hope of restoring these principles to the American people. While the messenger was humble and unassuming, the message was powerful and appealing. This is a man who deserves our support, and I pray that his message prevails before it is too late." Joan is married to Darrel Castle, who is both the NVC national chairman and the CP national vice-chairman. A comparison of Dr. Ron Paul and Dr. Jerome Corsi is sure to be an unofficial topic of discussion at the upcoming CP national meeting later this month.

news aspects

Congressman Paul's national campaign manager, Lew Moore, announced at the end of the rally that it was the largest one in the country so far. The official attendance count was 1,440 people in attendance. It turned out that, due to fire regulations, the ushers had to turn away almost a hundred people at the door. Out of four TV news stations in Nashville, only one announced the attendance figure, and none mentioned that it was the largest rally in the country. (But, at least they reported the event. The largest daily newspaper in the area, The Tennessean, did not print one drop of ink about the Ron Paul rally in its Sunday edition. However, they did run a feature — front-page, above the fold, with two photos — about the fact that a growing number of people now live in "virtual worlds" on the Internet. And, that newspaper also ran a large spread about Fred Thompson, even though he was not at any Nashville events this weekend.)

The rally was organized via the Nashville chapter of the online "Meet-Up groups" that support Ron Paul. By using the Internet to build grassroots support, Congressman Paul has bypassed the paid-media method of reaching the public. And, the public is responding enthusiastically.

Among the most popular topics of the speech (based upon very vocal audience reactions) were: expecting elected officials to actually obey the Constitution, abolishing the IRS, passing legislation in Congress to reverse Roe v. Wade (and then limit the Supreme Court's ability to hear abortion cases, which he says should be state-level decisions), preventing any tax upon Internet usage, and curtailing welfare spending programs that are not authorized by the Constitution.

Congressman Paul was critical of Federal involvement in public education. He likened it to the way that the Federal government responded to Hurricane Katrina. "The first thing they did was take everybody's guns away." He asked if anyone trusted that type of "help" from the government. If not, then why would anyone want the same government in charge of educating our children?

Sometimes, reporters and commentators seem to have misconstrued some of the things that Congressman Paul has said in the past. (But, on some occasions, he has managed to "shoot himself in the mouth.") The most controversial topic of that nature is his stance on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congressman Paul said that we have no moral obligation to keep our military forces in the Middle East. Part of his justification was that the "War on Terrorism" (a war "against a tactic, not a target") was never declared by Congress — as is required by the Constitution. His other supporting logic is that the money and manpower currently spent to protect the borders of other countries should be spent instead to protect our own borders. (Those are two points on which I thoroughly agree. So does the Constitution Party platform.)

commentary

I have been a fan of Congressman Paul, often nicknamed "Doctor No," for about 15 years. In the world of broadcast sound bytes and creative editing, he is a candidate that can get chewed up. Why? Because he is a deep thinker, and our "ADHD society" does not treat deep thinkers kindly. But, if one takes the time to listen to the entire explanation, then one will find that Congressman Ron Paul really has thought the problem all the way through. His Nashville speech left out much of his former "how to build a clock" style, and instead focused on telling the audience "what time it is."

We live in a world that has more access to information than at any time in the history of mankind. Our current generation of children spend more years in school than any before. Today's voters are supposedly the best-educated ever. They should be able to understand a deep-thinking presidential candidate. So... perhaps that is why The Tennessean did not report one word about the Nashville rally. Apparently, even one word from someone like Ron Paul is so powerful that the liberal agenda might crumble. (And, if anyone doubts that there is media bias, just look at how Dr. Alan Keyes is being excluded from the upcoming presidential debates in Michigan. Want another example? Look what happened to my campaign for Congress last year.)

The news media says that most Americans don't know who Ron Paul is, or where he stands. But, when media darlings like John McCain or Fred Thompson hold a rally in Nashville, they get far less attendance than Ron Paul got. (And, the media plays theirs up as a big success.) There is a saying that "as Nashville goes, so goes the nation." If this weekend was any indication, then Fred Thompson should call his agent about a new acting gig ... soon.

© Tom Kovach