Only 487 more days...

It still seems impossibly far away, so I am writing this entry will lots of trepidation. Yet, seeing this article today has made realize my preferred candidate isn't such a fringe candidate after all.

Ron Paul Tops McCain in Cash on Hand

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July 06, 2007 1:14 PM

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Reports: Though often regarded as a longshot candidate for president, Republican Ron Paul tells ABC News that he has an impressive $2.4 million in cash on hand after raising an equal amount during the second quarter, putting him ahead of one-time Republican frontrunner John McCain, who reported this week he has only $2 million in the bank.

In an exclusive interview taped Friday and airing Sunday on "This Week," Paul said his campaign is on a better trajectory than McCain's.

"I think some of the candidates are on the down-slope, and we're on the up-slope," said Paul.

Paul's cash on hand puts him in third place in the Republican field in that important metric, although he is well behind leader Rudy Giuliani, who has $18 million in the bank, and Mitt Romney, with $12 million.

Paul, who polls show with support in the low single digits, said his surprisingly strong fundraising is the best measure of his support.

"I think people have underestimated the number of people in this country who are interested in a freedom message," says the Republican congressman from Texas, who has strong libertarian leanings.

Click HERE to watch a clip from the interview.

To watch the full interview, tune in to "This Week" on Sunday (check local listings).

I have been a supporter of Ron Paul for few years, ever since first reading his contributions for Counterpunch. Dr. Paul (Ob/Gyn) is a representative from Texas and is about as Old School Republican as you can get. I myself am from Alaska, a very Republican state, and in many ways, just as Old School as Mr. Paul. As in, Libertarian. As in, don't touch my guns, my pot, or my property.

Back in 2004, nobody had heard of Ron Paul. And when they did, they didn't really know what to think of him. Here was a candidate, a very popular one in his district, calling himself a Republican, yet, who was very much against the War in Iraq, and pretty much against all of President Bush's policies, not to mention George on a personal level, as well.

Dr. Paul is against much of the government bureaucracy, especially the IRS, the ATF, the DEA, and many other agencies and acronys. He is a strident defender of the Bill of Rights, including the 2nd Amendment. Abortion is something that would not be protected under a Paul Presidency - he objects on religious reasons, as well as his Hippocratic Oath. A Supreme Court nominee would almost certainly vote against the Roe v. Wade precedent. The U.S. military would be relegated to a border protection mission only, and all foreign interventions immediately recalled.



I have identified with many aspects of the Libertarian philosophy, as well as the traditional Liberal viewpoint. It is true many of them are in conflict. This very conflict drove me to vote for Nader in 2000. Yet, the issues that affect this country are not Gun Control or Abortion - the stakes are much higher. Any President who tries to control these issues will soon realize that we are still a plurality, as a nation. Ever since Roe v. Wade in 1973 and the complete swing to the left on this issue, the Religious Right has grown in power based off of their ability to rally the faithful around this issue. And it is definitely moving, and has been for quite some time, back to the right. Yet, when it does, the Right will learn that the Left is still as equally as powerful. The Gun Control issue (on a superficial level) follows much the same pendulum path, the same wavelength.

These issues only serve to divide the population against itself and blind it to the real stakes at hand. Yet by trying not to be influenced by these dividing issues, I played right into the hands of the larger power structure at work.

The one constant since our nation's founding has been the consolidation of power by those in power. It is not really a conscious effort by those in the ruling class to gain more power, but really the government itself becomes self-fulfilling prophesy of growth, a beast that can't stop eating, a great whole based on the sum of it's parts, parts which are really only individuals looking to maintain their wealth and power, ensconce their position.

I believe in a government that serves it's people, not rules. The government today serves only greedy individual interest, through the prophylactic of the corporate charter. The Corporation allows for individuals to shirk any moral responsibilities by claiming allegiance to the corporate entity, or shareholders, and are there hand-tied and not liable. One has only to see the corporate meddling in our government by looking at the make of nearly any presidential administrations, the current one certainly included. More than half the country wonders if Dick Cheney's allegiance is still with Haliburton, and the Secretary of State has an oil tanker named after her. It is hardly a coincidence that since the beginning of the Bush Presidency, a family entrenched in Big Oil for decades, has taken a cabinet made up of nearly all former Big Oil execs and that this nation has been at war in the most strategic location for oil production on the planet.

Things may be pretty far gone in this country, but ironically, not far enough for a Ron Paul presidency. As he is advocating the near total destruction of the American bureaucracy, I don't see how this can happen without the near total destruction of the United States of America. Yet, if we proceed along the path of government against the people instead of for, the country will be destroyed anyways.

And I would rather have Ron Paul become president and lead with ideas, and yet be checked by the American plurality, and have the changes he would set in motion be far more gradual. Perhaps there is still hope. I can't bring myself to vote for another fringe candidate again. But maybe Ron Paul is no longer on the edge. I hope his policies, however, will continue to be so.