Texas Congressman Ron Paul formally threw his hat into the ring for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination on March 12, during an appearance on CSPAN. Paul is now is his ninth term representing Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, after serving a portion of one other term.
Paul is medical doctor (obstetrician/gynecologist) who first tried his hand at politics in 1974, when he was the Republican nominee for Texas' 22nd Congressional seat. He was defeated by the incumbent Democrat. However, when President Gerald Ford appointed that Democratic congressman to a post in his administration in the spring of 1976, Paul was appointed to serve out the remainder of his term in Congress. But Paul was then defeated by a different Democrat in the election that November. Therefore, Paul's initial foray into Congress lasted only about eight months.
However, in 1978, Paul won the re-match against the Democrat who defeated him in 1976. He subsequently won re-election in 1980 and 1982. Paul did not seek re-election in 1984. Instead, he decided to run for the Senate seat that was being vacated by the retiring John Tower. Paul was defeated by Phil Gramm in the Republican senatorial primary. Gramm ultimately won the general election and Paul's former seat in the House was won by future House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
In 1985, Paul returned to his private medical practice. He joined the Libertarian Party in 1987 and was its presidential nominee in 1988, finishing a very distant third in the general election behind George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.
After being away from the political scene for eight years, he won election to Congress again in 1996, this time representing Texas' 14th Congressional District. He was elected as a Republican, defeating the incumbent former Democrat in the GOP primary before winning the general election. Texas Republican insiders, angry with Paul for having defected to the Libertarian Party, had backed the incumbent. Then they supported another Republican in the primary in 1998, when he ran for re-election. But Paul again won the primary and the general election. Paul easily won re-election in 2000 and 2002, was unopposed in 2004, and handily won again in 2006.
After returning to Congress, he joined the Republican Liberty Caucus and has since served as its chairman. It is considered to be the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. Paul caucuses with House Republicans and votes with them on procedural matters, but is a maverick who often bucks party leadership on major pieces of legislation.
Paul is not only a libertarian, but he also prides himself on being a Constitutionalist -- one who believes in a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and therefore a very limited federal government. In accordance with this view, he supports the abolition of the federal income tax, most Cabinet departments, and the Federal Reserve. In addition, he supports a return to the gold standard. In fact, he has voted against almost every government spending and/or taxation bill that has come up while he's been a member of Congress, earning him the nickname, "Dr. No." He is quite often one of just a handful of House members voting against a given bill.
On foreign policy his is a strict non-interventionist who opposes U.S. involvement in most foreign affairs. He has opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning and advocates U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations. He views the war on terror as an assault on civil liberties and voted against the USA Patriot Act. Unlike most libertarians, he strongly supports a crackdown on illegal immigration and endorses beefed-up border security.
He does not believe Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate or ban any drug. He opposes the drug war and has sponsored legislation advocating states' rights in regard to medical marijuana and industrial hemp.
Paul supports the repeal of the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution (he believes U.S. Senators should be selected by state legislatures once again, and not directly elected), opposes campaign finance reforms, advocates better ballot access for third-party and independent candidates, and is a strong defender of the Electoral College.
Among his other views, he is strongly pro-life on abortion but says it's a state issue. He believes the U.S. Supreme Court should be banned from overruling the states on abortion, birth control, stem-cell research, gay marriage, criminal law, and other similar issues. He also believes Congress should keep its hands off the Internet and he therefore opposes any legislation that allows federal monitoring or regulation of it.
Almost completely ignored by the national media, Paul begins his presidential campaign with an extremely remote chance of being nominated. He does start with a strong, albeit small, base of support throughout the country. He will obviously not have access to the kind of money that the leading candidates have access to, nor will he have their kind of organizational and party-insider support. Instead, he will depend mainly on multiple individual donations and a strong base on the Internet. However, he says his will not be just a shoe-string campaign and that he is in to win. In addition to Republicans, he plans to target libertarians and Democrats who oppose the war in Iraq and encourage them to crossover and vote for him in the Republican primaries. It's a tall order, though, as he remains a heavy underdog, at or near the bottom of most surveys of likely Republican primary voters.
I think that once the general public get a look at Dr. Paul, he will skyrocket in the polls.
If you ask people for their positions on the issues, a great majority will take the positions Dr. Paul has taken. His low standing in the current polls is simply a reflection of how few people know about him.
Thanks for helping to get the word out.
Posted by: Michael Wagner | April 17, 2007 at 10:24 AM
If you are interested in more information concerning the 17th Amendment, please check out my weblog, Repeal the 17th Amendment. I have posted a number of scholarly articles that discuss the history and consequences of the amendment.
Regards,
Brian
http://repealthe17thamendment.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Brian | April 20, 2007 at 12:46 PM