Posted on 11/29/2007 9:26:18 AM PST by nsmart
Arizona Senator John McCain tried to resuscitate his ailing campaign for the Republican presidential nomination by attacking Texas Congressman Ron Paul's anti-war stance during Wednesday night's CNN/YouTube debate.
But, as in previous Republican debates where leading contenders have stumbled in their attempts to attack the renegade congressman, it was Paul who ended up drawing the cheers of the crowd.
Playing his Thanksgiving visit to Iraq for political points, McCain tore into Paul for arguing -- as part of a discussion about spending -- that bringing the troops home from Iraq would save "a trillion dollars."
Just as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani tried in an earlier debate to buff his national-security credentials by attacking Paul's suggestion that misguided U.S. foreign policies increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks, McCain attempted to burnish his image as a champion of the troops by attacking Paul -- and, by extension, all critics of the war.
Invoking memories of the American First movement's opposition in the late-1930s and early-1940s to preparation for the fight with Hitler and Mussolini, McCain declared, "it's that kind of isolationism that caused World War II."
That rhetorical flourish drew hisses from the Republican crowd that listened to the debate in St. Petersburg, Florida
But Paul did not need the audience to protect him.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...
I’m no fan of Ron Paul but I do agree that McCain managed to wiggle out of answering the question that was asked.
Full disclosure: I am not a McCain supporter and I think he would be a disastrous nominee.
Ron Paul...favorite Republican Presidential candidate of the ultra-liberals at The Nation. I’m not surprised.
}:-)4
There is no significant support for Ron Paul. The volume of the screech doesn’t tell you how many birds there are, just the decible level......
Stacked voting by Ron Paul supporters.
Romney: Very greasy
Paul: I know him to be an utter kook, but I was impressed with his demeanor and carriage. That said:
I’m very fond of the bill of rights. My personal liberty must be respected. I would vote for anyone who would promise to honor the bill of rights completely. In this election, its Ron Paul.
Paul calls Kucinich veep speculation "premature" [will think about it in 3 or 4 months]
What other Conservative or GOP candidate would think consideration of splitting the ticket with Kucinich is PREMATURE and not out of the question?
Show a little self respect and find another candidate!
I wonder if McCain has never heard about the Treaty of Versailles and its effect on setting the stage for WW2... How else could he, with a straight face, call that period of international Wilsonian interventionism “isolationism”
Its like I have to watch the Republican candidates stand there and try to be more like Woodrow Wilson than the last one.
Not sure what debate they were watching but I thought McCain (who I can’t stand) cleaned Pauls clock. Sure there were some loud planted nuts in the audience cheering Paul, but McCain made good points that got even louder applause.
There. All fixed now.
The Bill of Rights and my personal liberty means a lot to me. I’d like to pass it on to my children and grandchildren. the growing police state including the federalies reach down all the way to local police is chilling. Government ‘protection’ of its citizens by taking away just a little chunk of liberty here and there, never turns out very well. The military is for defense, not offense and a declaration of war by congress is required by the Constitution.
But McCain was wrong on water boarding.
You have no rights under islamic-fascism.
Remember RP doesn’t thinks its an issue or one that can be solved by submarines.
If you're fond of the Bill of Rights, then you have even less excuse for:
(1) Adopting the analysis of a magazine that opposes the Bill of Rights in its entirety, especially with regard to the 2nd, 9th and 10th Amendments, and
(2) Supporting a candidate who is the one GOP contender doing hsi level best to bring about sharia law in the USA.
“Its like I have to watch the Republican candidates stand there and try to be more like Woodrow Wilson than the last one.” Sadly true.
What is chilling to me is the GOP (the incredible shrinking party of neocons and globalists — all the other candidates on the stage were CFR members) doesn’t embrace these kids who never cared about politics before. The other candidates seem afraid of losing that choke hold on citizens that DC has devised.
CNN stacked the questions and audience with libs and Ron Paul Truthers too.
I thought McCain did an excellent job in the debate for the most part. I don’t like it when he gets sanctimonious about torture or Katrina, but other than that he did well. If he’s going to talk about people’s lack of faith in government and it’s failures, he should say government is trying to do too much, rather than implying that it isn’t doing enough.
He had the right message on Iraq and projected strength and leadership. Ron Paul on the other hand looked quivering and on the verge of tears. He has a few good ideas on the domestic side, but I think he’s moderating his real views in public to mask a deeper paranoid insanity.
Are you really that afraid of a few terrorists? If you are, then they have won.
Show a little respect for reality if not for your own credibility!
“A few terrorists” killed 3,000 Americans one Tuesday morning...
Getting cheered at CNN is nothing to brag about. Unless you are a NUT like Ron Paul.
I'm not afraid of fighting terrorists at all, because if we fight them we will annihilate them.
I'm afraid of traitorous clowns who want to appease terrorists and surrender to them instead of fighting them.
The only way they can beat us is if we fold.
Hey nsmart, does the ‘n’ stand for ‘not’?
After 9/11 Ron Paul submitted a bill to immediately send an attack force after Bin Laden. End of Story!
By using terrorism as a fear-factor, Bush has grown govt far and wide .. all the way into the local police through homeland security. You may be okay with that, but I was against it when Clinton sent money to local cops, too. We don’t need our local police turned into military-robocops. That ALWAYS ends badly. For a bunch of guys who I used to think of as macho, fear of a bunch of rag tag terrorists now seems to ooze from every pore. The true patriots, the military are donating to Ron Paul.
Hey nsmart, does the ‘n’ stand for ‘not’?
get some new material.
Sending in a task force of special forces following 9/11 is appeasement? That was the bill Ron Paul wrote immediately after 9/11. Bush preferred to turn it into a WWII type War and lost bin Laden.
So tell me, do you wish we would have crushed bin laden immediately or not?
Yep. A commie liberal said something nice about him, so we know he's a commie liberal. It's just so easy.
Hmmm... so I guess you've heard that one a lot, then.Hey nsmart, does the ‘n’ stand for ‘not’?get some new material.
You've never been around "a few terrorists." I have, and by the way, I'm not afraid of them, but I do not like the impact they have on day-to-day living. Nor would you.
Pretty easy to thump your chest while sitting safely behind your computer monitor, eh?
You have no way of knowing what life is like when terrorism is rampant.
Any American with any sense would like to keep it that way at home.
Ron Paul and some of the Democrat candidates would likely make terrorism a regularity in the US, and I'll wager you wouldn't be displaying your false bravado so eagerly then.
Thank goodness that barking moonbat Ron Paul has no chance of getting the nomination.
In fact, he'll be fighting for his Congressional seat.
“A few terrorists” killed 3,000 Americans one Tuesday morning...
Yes. I watched that event with horror.
Immediately following 9/11, Ron Paul wrote a bill authorizing a tactical strike force to immediately go in and get bin laden. Waiting for a WWII type of invasion of Afghanistan was a tactical mistake. We lost bin laden by the delay.
But in an Indian newspaper, prior to 9/11, (which the 9/11 commission blames on our foreign policy of interventionism, by the way) an article appeared that India, Pakistan, Britian and the USA were planning to invade Afghanistan to rout out the Taliban. I think Bush saw an opportunity to justify the plans.
What I cannot understand is how a group of macho patriots accepts the growth of the government here in the US, the entangling of the feds down to our lowest level of police in the US when they were on board with me and lots of others during Clinton’s term that he was overreaching in those areas. Do you think the next president or the one after that will not MIS-USE these powers?
I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I am with Ron Paul.
With 1% support in polls ... he’s a sure winner!
LOL!!!!
(1) Ron Paul wrote no such bill.
(2) If Ron Paul had written such a bill, it would have been unconstitutional.
(3) What Bush did in Afghanistan was precisely to deploy special forces teams on the ground.
Nothing about our presence in Afghanistan is "WWII-style."
So tell me, do you wish we would have crushed bin laden immediately or not?
It certainly would have been preferable to not finding him or worse, appeasing him like Ron Paul advocates.
But what is more important strategically than killing bin Laden is destroying his networks and reducing his capability.
And I notice that, for six years, his crew have been unable to make even a token terror attack on our soil.
You may be okay with that
I love that technique but it does not work on me.
The true patriots, the military are donating to Ron Paul.
This statement has been proven untrue at least one million times but go ahead keep repeating it, its so cute.
“... I’m not afraid of them, but I do not like the impact they have on day-to-day living. Nor would you”
Just look at the nation’s spending and amassing of powers at the DC level in the last 6 years and tell me things have not changed! And you are correct — I don’t like it.
“Pretty easy to thump your chest while sitting safely behind your computer monitor, eh?”
Do you mean like all the neocons who have never served? Ron Paul was in the military and gets the most donations from them of any GOP candidate.
“You have no way of knowing what life is like when terrorism is rampant.” But we all will if we don’t quit poking that stick in the hornets’ nest. You think the idea of Blood Feud hasn’t been around for centuries in the ME?
“Any American with any sense would like to keep it that way at home” as would I by changing our interventionist foreign policy.
“Ron Paul and some of the Democrat candidates would likely make terrorism a regularity in the US, and I’ll wager you wouldn’t be displaying your false bravado so eagerly then.” If you are reading bravado from this grandmother, clean your glasses.
And I’ll ask again, do you really think the next president or the one after that will not use Homeland Security and the new powers of the administration against the patriots at home?
“... preferable to not finding him or worse, appeasing him like Ron Paul advocates.”
Giving bin laden the status of waging war, gave his rag tag bunch of creeps much more power than any other thing we could have done.
Sending strike forces immediately to search and destroy = Appeasement — hummm? not sure how that correlates.
Why doesn’t the Rudy’s and the Mitt’s camps stuff more of these after-debate-sites with their votes.
1) Either they don’t like them (Mitt Rudy).
2) They all like Ron Paul based on his stand.
3) Machine glitch every time.
4) It is a conspiracy.
5) Paulians have a secret device that can alter website votes that no other candidate has.
What Paul wanted to do was issue a Letter of Marque. This would have turned the WOT over to privateers NOT special forces.
Who the hell did he/you want to send there Duane "Dog" Chapman? Chuck Norris?
Paul's a fool or a Quisling and Paulestinians are joining him. Time to jump off that band wagon!
What gave him power was his ability to destroy the tallest buildings in America's largest city.
Not going to war against the government that sheltered and facilitated him.
Sending strike forces immediately to search and destroy = Appeasement — hummm? not sure how that correlates.
You continue to retail the lie that Ron Paul was out in front of the President calling for special forces deployment.
He was not. That is something you have entirely made up.
What Ron Paul actually did do was attempt to appease bin Laden by saying that bin Laden's actions were justified by US foreign policy.
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“What Paul wanted to do was issue a Letter of Marque. This would have turned the WOT over to privateers NOT special forces.”
Even better. Imagine Blackwater going after the Bin Laden group.. it would have been their WORST nightmare. Bush could legally send special forces, too. What a group of patriots and they would have succeeded in snaring that creepy group.
Oh, things have changed. For one, we haven't had a terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11/01. Many have been thwarted, though. And the enemy has been engaged elsewhere, which has kept things much safer at home. Again, you clearly have not been exposed to true terrorism. Thank a soldier next time you see one.
Do you mean like all the neocons who have never served?
When and how have you served?
Ron Paul was in the military and gets the most donations from them of any GOP candidate.
That load of fertilizer has been properly debunked time and time again. Your saying it over and over again does not make it any closer to the truth.
If you are reading bravado from this grandmother, clean your glasses.
Perhaps you should clean yours. I said "false bravado." Acting as if you are not afraid of "a few terrorists" when you have never been around terrorists is false bravado.
For me, Ron Paul had a nice hit on the Amero/NAFTA Highway stuff, he was quote correct when he said:
“It’s not a conspiracy, it’s just thatno one is talking about it..”
He was correct on that point...very correct.
Then of course he blew it by adding “We need to get out of iraq” stuff...ahh the Perils of Paul..
Do you think that Ron Paul should be executed?
“What other Conservative or GOP candidate would think consideration of splitting the ticket with Kucinich is PREMATURE and not out of the question?
Show a little self respect and find another candidate!”
Show some self respect drpix, and DON’T vote for a socialist, which is what the leaders in the GOP field are, God Damned socialists. OR, stop lying to people about being a conservative and admit that you’re a socialist lib from the get go because you root for a “front runner”.
“What gave [bin laden] power was his ability to destroy the tallest buildings in America’s largest city.”
Actually, that was a disasterous breach of our national security. Norad missed it entirely.
“What Ron Paul actually did do was attempt to appease bin Laden by saying that bin Laden’s actions were justified by US foreign policy.”
Ron Paul sponsored a bill to let Blackwater go after him for a bounty. That would have been all bin laden deserved — to be chased like the criminal he is.
Ron Paul never ‘justified’ bin laden’s actions. That is a neocon one trick pony and its getting old. The 9/11 commission stated our interventionist policies caused them to strike us. Terrorism is a tactic. It is used by the weak. Sending in our entire military and dropping bunker busters and shock and awe (a form of terrorism, in my opinion) gave bin laden exactly what he wanted. More angry muslims to join him. And it gave the US govt the power to pass Homeland Security to spend Billions more on a new agency because our existing agencies failed to prevent 9/11.
Its a common government ploy — when they mess up, they claim they need more money. We knew that wasn’t true in the past. We knew the ATF was only getting the Davidian videos to justify their swat teams. We knew this stuff.
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