The Detroit News: Texas maverick Ron Paul makes mark on GOP race

[sailingaway]

http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C3&Date=20120222&Category=POLITICS01&ArtNo=202220387&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0&Texas-maverick-Ron-Paul-makes-mark-GOP-race

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120222/POLITICS01/202220387/Texas-maverick-makes-mark-GOP-race?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

[RPit]

Nice article

[Mckarnin]

I enjoyed that. Have to force myself not to think about how he would be doing if more of the articles were that objective.

[Paul Or Nothing II]

I think we've found a new meme to spread! :D

Texas Maverick!

:D:D:D

[kathy88]

I think we've found a new meme to spread! :D

Texas Maverick!

:D:D:D

Too McCain.

[flynn]

I think we've found a new meme to spread! :D

Texas Maverick!

:D:D:D

Ron Paul = Thomas Jefferson 2.0

[digitaldean]

I am starting to see new groups starting to call Santorum/Romeny a joke. Now if we can win 3-5 states by the time Super Tuesday ends the media might call us the front runner? Umm or not lol

[J_White]

I still like the Incorruptible better.

a new meme for Santorum is Ayatollah Santorum, but I digress !!

[frodus24]

IMO-If Rick Santorum were ever elected as President of this country, I feel he would be a fucking dictator. There is something crawling out of his skin, eyes and nose that make me cringe at seeing him lately. Even my mother, who is a hard core Christian, agreed with me.

[frodus24]

IMO-If Rick Santorum were ever elected as President of this country, I feel he would be a fucking dictator. There is something crawling out of his skin, eyes and nose that make me cringe at seeing him lately. Even my mother, who is a hard core Christian, agreed with me.

[EBounding]

IMO-If Rick Santorum were ever elected as President of this country, I feel he would be a fucking dictator. There is something crawling out of his skin, eyes and nose that make me cringe at seeing him lately. Even my mother, who is a hard core Christian, agreed with me.

I don't know if this would make you feel any better, but he would govern the same as Obamneyrich. The way he's talking now is a campaign strategy to fill the social conservative "niche" since no one else is doing it. He's just exploiting them for their votes. His rhetoric will do a dramatic 180 if he's actually nominated. Of course, being the status quo isn't much better.

[odamn]

Texas maverick Ron Paul makes mark on GOP race

By Kim Kozlowski
The Detroit News
46 Comments

The 76-year-old congressman begins stumping in Michigan Saturday prior to Tuesday’s state primary.
The 76-year-old congressman begins stumping in Michigan Saturday prior to Tuesday’s state primary. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images North America)

Grand Rapids— When Ron Paul attended high school in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, the GOP presidential candidate was a track star who broke records and landed the title of state champion.

His skill led the University of Pittsburgh to offer him a scholarship, but by then Paul had hurt his knee playing football and knew his performance would never be the same.

University officials told Paul they were willing to take a chance on him, but Paul insisted on turning down the scholarship.

"He just didn't believe that was right," said one of Paul's four brothers, David Paul, who lives in Hudsonville, near Grand Rapids. "That took a great deal of integrity, which he still has today."

The move illustrates the principled life Paul has lived, his brother said, and is one reason cited by many who support the Texas congressman during his third bid for the Oval Office.

Paul has championed many libertarian views while simultaneously embracing Republican values. But he also has espoused stances on issues such as foreign policy that some have dismissed as radical.

Even so, the former serviceman and doctor — who completed a residency at Henry Ford Hospital in 1962 — is being taken more seriously than ever, observers say.

Speaking by phone from Arizona ahead of tonight's televised debate, Paul said there are reasons why more people are listening to his message.

"Now that the crisis is getting much, much worse financially, we still have a major economic crisis that has not been resolved, and we're fighting these endless wars and we're broke," Paul said.

Paul, 76, plans to stump in Michigan starting Saturday. Many are predicting he won't win the Republican presidential nomination — a prediction he brushed off, adding that a decision won't be known for a while.

But analysts say Paul's presence has changed the trajectory of the nation's political conversation. They also say he is creating another social movement within the Republican Party, like Christian conservatives have done, and laying the groundwork for them to secure a foothold in the party.

"Ron Paul maybe has a different set of objectives than a traditional Republican candidate has, which may not necessarily mean winning the nomination," said Michael Heaney, a University of Michigan assistant professor of organizational studies and political science.

"He is pushing the agenda of a libertarian movement. … What Ron Paul may be doing is setting the stage for a next generation of libertarian candidates."

But his supporters disagree, saying he is one of the most steadfast, honest and uncompromising politicians and the nation is ready for him to lead.

"Here's a man who has actual integrity," said Lisa Sedlar, a supporter from Escanaba. "He has managed to have experience in Washington and not become tainted by that."
Behind in recent Mich. poll

Paul placed last among the Republican candidates in a Detroit News/WDIV Local 4 poll released last week, with only 8.9 percent of likely voters supporting him. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum leads with 34 percent support, followed by Mitt Romney with 30.4 percent support, and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 11.6 percent support.

Even Paul's brother predicts the man who is considered by some to be the "intellectual grandfather" of the tea party will not win the GOP nomination.

"I feel all right with it," said David Paul. "He does too."

For decades, Paul has preached individual liberty, free markets, constitutional government and a return to a commodity-backed monetary policy. He has circulated newsletters and written several books on the topics.

Dr. Andrew W. Messenger, a family physician in St. Johns, Mich., went to Washington with his father, also a doctor by the same name, to convince Paul to run for president in 2008.

Messenger remembered Paul as being sincere and knowledgeable. Paul's wife even baked cookies for them. The two doctors organized other supporters, gathered funding and helped convince Paul to run.

"If he'd been elected four years ago, we'd have more money in our pockets, we'd have more soldiers alive," said Messenger, 61. "He is there because he really thinks this country needs what he selling."
Vows to balance budget

The centerpiece of Paul's campaign is the "Plan to Restore America," which would return the United States to a "constitutional government."

According to his campaign website, Paul is proposing, if elected, to deliver a balanced budget in his third year in office. He'd cut $1 trillion in the first year by eliminating five Cabinet departments: Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Interior and Education.

He also would get rid of the Transportation Security Administration, corporate subsidies and foreign aid. He's also vowed to end foreign wars. Paul has proposed ending the Federal Reserve and withdrawing U.S. forces engaged overseas, said Marc Kruman, director of the Center for the Study of Citizenship at Wayne State University.

"He is raising issues that the other candidates are having to address but he sits on the fringe of the Republican party," Kruman said.

Paul wouldn't call it the fringe.

"A lot more people now are coming in this direction of advocating strict adherence to the Constitution, and a strict and confident belief that individual liberty is more important than having a nanny state that takes care of us from cradle to grave," he said.
Began career in medicine

Paul's convictions started forming in the small home of Howard and Margaret Paul in Green Tree, Pa., southwest of Pittsburgh. He was the middle child of four other brothers.

He attended Gettysburg College, a private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, where he was a pre-med student. He earned his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina. In between, he married Carol Wells, with whom he had five children.

He served as flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force, and eventually settled in Texas, where he worked as a gynecologist and obstetrician, delivering an estimated 4,000 babies.

Convinced the nation was on the wrong path, he ran for and was elected to Congress in 1976. Over the years, he has collected a range of supporters who say he has never waffled on his position, or broken a promise.

That has won Paul the support of many young voters.

"He's the only one with the army of young supporters, he's the only one with appeal to independents and moderates," said Ethan Davis, coordinator of the Youth for Ron Paul chapter at Michigan State University. "He's the only one who can beat (President Barack) Obama."

[KMX]

Very nice. I wish Dallas, or FT Worth would talk about our native hero!

[Tyler_Durden]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120222/POLITICS01/202220387/Texas-maverick-makes-mark-GOP-race?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

[Constitutional Paulicy]

I enjoyed that. Have to force myself not to think about how he would be doing if more of the articles were that objective.
And if I might add "circulating in the mainstream awareness"

[sailingaway]

And if I might add "circulating in the mainstream awareness"

This is Detroit local media, which is nice.

[Tyler_Durden]

This is Detroit local media, which is nice.

Front page of their newspaper. If you scroll down to the bottom of the story, you can actually see an image of the newspaper. I tried to post the image here, but couldn't...

[FSP-Rebel]

Front page of their newspaper.

Nice, I'm gonna go out and buy a copy.

[centure7]

IMO-If Rick Santorum were ever elected as President of this country, I feel he would be a fucking dictator. There is something crawling out of his skin, eyes and nose that make me cringe at seeing him lately. Even my mother, who is a hard core Christian, agreed with me.I don't really see how Santorum can be taken seriously by the hard-core Christian crowd when he was pro-choice "all of his life" until 1995. I'm sorry but that tells me he is faking the Christian bit as nothing more than his "special" (read:stupid) way of pandering.

Ron Paul is very much a genuine Christian.

[mczerone]

Front page of their newspaper. If you scroll down to the bottom of the story, you can actually see an image of the newspaper. I tried to post the image here, but couldn't...

Not only front page, but above the fold, with a good pic!

[JimInNY]

I enjoyed that. Have to force myself not to think about how he would be doing if more of the articles were that objective.

Why is it that EVERY article about RP has to dwell on the false notion that he cannot or will not win the nomination? I have yet to read an article on the grinch that said he could not win. Or when sanitarium was way down in the polls, no articles saying he could not win.

I have to respectfully disagree that this article was objective. It was just another "he can't win" piece of dung journalism.

[Philosophy_of_Politics]

Maverick Paul


a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates: a modern-dance maverick. Synonyms: nonconformist, individualist; free thinker; loner, lone wolf.

[Paul Or Nothing II]

I don't really see how Santorum can be taken seriously by the hard-core Christian crowd when he was pro-choice "all of his life" until 1995. I'm sorry but that tells me he is faking the Christian bit as nothing more than his "special" (read:stupid) way of pandering.

Ron Paul is very much a genuine Christian.

Umm, they don't know that, they get their information from Faux Nooz & don't do their research on candidates (which is pretty much true for majority of voters anywhere around the world, no wonder world is such a mess :()

Anyways, I hope other candidates' pacs will bring his ignominious past to light & bring him down :D