A very serious concern for tomorrows debate - a prediction of sorts

[militant]

Tomorrow is the 'Tea Party debate' as CNN is billing it. Tomorrow is also 9/12, just one day after the 10th anniversary of the events in New York, DC, and Pennsylvania. Tomorrow is a day when kitchen table Republicans are going to be at a ramped up level of 9/11 emotion and patriotism. And tomorrow night is when CNN and the Tea Party Express organization are going to use all of that freshly stirred emotion to try to make a major hit against Ron Paul.

They're going to ask him about foreign policy more than they usually do - it's a topic they try to avoid with RP unless they're trying to nitpick or push hard on a particular fine-pointed issue. But tomorrow night I predict they're going to try to feed him a question or three designed to elicit predictable responses from him, responses that they know don't sound very good in the heat of the moment and with limited time to explain the reasoning and background on them. It would be all too easy for them to angle things such that Paul sounds to the uninitiated as if he's saying we deserved to be attacked or that we didn't have a right to defend ourselves or retaliate. We all know it sounds that way sometimes from his words when his time is short and his interlocutor has an agenda.

This would enable the rest of the media to jump on Ron Paul and cut context and so on, preying on the sensitivities of voters during this anniversary week.

This could hurt. Quite a bit. Ron really really needs to come prepared with short simple clear answers to the expected FP questions, or he's going to get badgered for days over it. But we know Ron doesn't do debate prep, doesn't can his answers ahead of time, and doesn't concern himself much with these sorts of concerns and traps.

So we here in the grassroots need to do two things: 1) We need to not be shocked or thrown off when the hard or slanted questions related to 9/11 and foreign policy come and Paul possibly handles them less well than we would hope. He, and we, have the right answers! And that brings me to point 2) We have to be ready, ourselves, to turn to our friends and family and flesh out his answers and explain the context and minimize the damage done by the almost guaranteed attack that's coming down on us. We have to be armed with facts, with well-worded examples and explanations, and we have to flood our circles in real life and online with rebuttals to the inevitable criticisms his responses will draw. Many Americans have very raw nerves about 9/11 this week and it's too rich and easy of a target for the media to pass up. We have to make defensive plays here. But I think there will be much opportunity to turn the tables and enlighten people as well. We must turn this against them and use it as an opportunity to call into question the very premises of the media's and the other campaigns' questions and criticisms.

[ForLiberty2012]

Oh, you worry too much :)

I HOPE they ask him about foreign policy. That's when we get the independents and Democrats to jump on board and get the neo-cons thinking, "Damn this guy actually makes sense compared to these other goons." Every other candidate will dance around those questions, which is to our advantage...

[eleganz]

If they try to hit him hard, he knows exactly how to reply.

American's might not like hearing this but blowbacks a bitch, if we stop bossing the rest of the world around, maybe we might actually get along with them.

Just like the fence answer, Ron Paul will get the nation thinking critically for themselves vs being spoon fed a bunch of patriotic bullshit that has nothing to do with the issues and everything to do with egotism, arrogance and corruption.

[militant]

As I said, I know he has the right answers. It's the framing of the question, and the chopping of the answer in soundbites after the debate, that concerns me, this particular week.

[dusman]

Never lose faith in the truth. It's an instinct in the minds of us all to know it when we hear it.

[dannno]

I hope they hit him on foreign policy harder than usual so he can educate more people.

[eleganz]

The good thing about Ron Paul is that despite the other candidates stealing his positions and policies, only Ron Paul can tell it how Ron Paul tells it, the other candidates are afraid to say things Ron Paul says on a daily basis.

[Tinnuhana]

Just compare our "friends"/recipients of our government's largesse with those they wish to bomb and the hypocrisy of the foreign policy will speak for itself. Where were most of the terrorists from on 9/11? How come their country of origin has not been bombed?
North Korea is pretty much nuclear, starving its people, and kidnapping Japanese and sinking Japanese Defense Force ships. Have we done anything about this? (We meaning the US Gov't.) Japan is an ally with tens of thousands of US troops taking up their soil. Where was the US response to those acts of war?
Ron knows the answers to those questions. It's great "ammo."

[ClayTrainor]

Wow, there's another debate already? Sweet!

[Ronpauljones]

what time will the debate be?

[afwjam]

8 pm

[kojirodensetsu]

Never lose faith in the truth. It's an instinct in the minds of us all to know it when we hear it.

I haven't lost faith in truth, just mainstream media and the people who watch it.


Wow, there's another debate already? Sweet!

Yeah. Hopefully he'll get asked more than 3 questions this time. :rolleyes:

[michaelkellenger]

whos hosting? I'm guessing not Anderson since he has his new syndicated talk show.
who else does CNN have? Wolf? Jack Cafferty? John King? Elliott Spitzer?

[wgadget]

I think I heard it was Wolf.

[afwjam]

I believe it is Wolf.

[Ronpauljones]

It is Wolf.

[Chainspell]

i think he was off his game because they were trying something new last time. I bet he yelled at those people and told them to let him do it his way lol.

[pacelli]

I think the OP makes an excellent point and it would be helpful to expect some serious foreign policy blowback, especially considering the timing of the debate. That being said I think RP needs to focus on his foreign policy PLAN, specifics, and not theory. If he spends the majority of his answer time on a theoretical discussion, the average voter is going to feel confused as to what a Paul administration would look like.

I anticipate a question along these lines, "If you were the President during 9/11, would you have done anything differently?"

Paul can absolutely dominate this question if he focuses on the question, rather than bringing up Bush's 2000 platform and talking about how our country is engaged in militarism, or worse, bring up the military industrial complex. All of those things are true, but the average voter needs something else. He needs to demonstrate a sense of confidence and the ability to manage a disaster, to calm the country down. To show the republicans that he isn't going to wander all over aimlessly and get into a theoretical discussion when the country is being attacked.

And I really hope that he has a chance to show his sensitivity, as a human being. He closed down the last debate talking about being compassionate, and got the last word in-- something nobody else had said.

[Darin]

The question will be about how we got intel about potential attacks, and they will imply that under his Presidency we wouldn't have gotten that intel and there might've been an attack. Maybe the attack on the base yesterday would've happened here if we weren't over there!

He'll do fine. It's a Tea Party sponsored debate I think. So he can focus on the budget aspect.

- Darin

[D.A.S.]

I will repeat what I said in another thread about today's debate:

Dial down your expectations a little bit. Ron always does FINE. We're just hoping for stellar. I am quite confident the MSNBC was the lowest point in debate appearances, but we shouldn't expect Ron to change his ways overnight and start taking debate lessons. He's done a great job in the past throwing unforgettable one-liners, and I am quite sure he'll be on his game tonight.

[LibertyEagle]

I think the OP makes an excellent point and it would be helpful to expect some serious foreign policy blowback, especially considering the timing of the debate. That being said I think RP needs to focus on his foreign policy PLAN, specifics, and not theory. If he spends the majority of his answer time on a theoretical discussion, the average voter is going to feel confused as to what a Paul administration would look like.

I anticipate a question along these lines, "If you were the President during 9/11, would you have done anything differently?"

Paul can absolutely dominate this question if he focuses on the question, rather than bringing up Bush's 2000 platform and talking about how our country is engaged in militarism, or worse, bring up the military industrial complex. All of those things are true, but the average voter needs something else. He needs to demonstrate a sense of confidence and the ability to manage a disaster, to calm the country down. To show the republicans that he isn't going to wander all over aimlessly and get into a theoretical discussion when the country is being attacked.

And I really hope that he has a chance to show his sensitivity, as a human being. He closed down the last debate talking about being compassionate, and got the last word in-- something nobody else had said.

Quoted for truth.

[Tod]

With 9/11, I've been mentioning blowback and US/Middle East history on Facebook and w/ the local Tea Party group, pointing out how right Dr. Paul has been.

[speciallyblend]

clearly by cnn polls Ron Paul is now the CLEAR Tea Party Candidate. I would love to see cnn try to sell romney or perry(gop est shills) as tea party! this debate would be a great way for ron paul to call perry and romney out on almost every issue!!

[Tod]

He should kick off his reply with the simple, forcefully said statement that "America needs a strong defense and no attack on our great nation can go unanswered!"

and once he has that out of the way, he can go into depth about the folly of all these overseas entanglements.

[No Free Beer]

we want them to ask about foreign policy. Ron just needs to make sure to SLOWLY explain the reasons behind 9/11. If Ron is clear like he was back in 07, he'll hit home runs all night. He shouldn't worry about rushing, he needs to take his time. Speak SLOWLY! In Ron We Trust.

[tremendoustie]

Never lose faith in the truth. It's an instinct in the minds of us all to know it when we hear it.

Exactly right.

[kazmlsj]

Well, one thing is for sure, Ron Paul will not change his stance no matter what day it is or who the audience is.

That's why we trust him.

At least Guilliani won't be there to cackle in his microphone.

[Chieppa1]

Oh bring that shit on. This is old news for Ron. He can bitch-slap this question.

"What would you have done differently on 9\11?????"

"Well Wolf, I wouldn't have had the entire eastern seaboard's airspace defenseless."