Ron Paul visits Reno, makes inroads with Republican leadership

RCJ.com
By Susan Voyles
April 30th 2011

Republican Congressman Ron Paul, who is considering a presidential run in 2012, re-arranged his schedule to have breakfast with Washoe County GOP leaders Friday morning.
Three years ago, he said that invitation wouldn't have happened.

"We were outsiders. We weren't invited to the convention," he said, of his bid to run for president in 2008.

But with big smile, "things are going our way," he said at a news conference Thursday in Lawlor Events Center during a visit to the University of Nevada, Reno.

On Jan. 19, 2008, Paul finished in Nevada's Republican presidential caucus.

In April 2008, Nevada GOP leaders abruptly adjourned the state convention and sent delegates home. For 18 months after that, the party kept ballots on who should be sent to the national convention locked up at a casino cashier's cage at the Peppermill in Reno. When they were finally retrieved and counted, three Ron Paul delegates should have been sent.

Paul said he doesn't believe that will happen again. If he runs, he said his supporters will be cautious when during Nevada's GOP caucus Feb. 18.

Paul is still bewildered why his supporters weren't welcome. "We had the enthusiasm. Young people wanted to join. It's a block of voters that the Republican Party would be excited about."

Today many young people have "helped build the party," he said. "The difference is night and day."

Busy time

Paul, the 75-year-old, 12-term representative from near Houston, is on a roll.

He was on talk shows in New York City earlier this week and in Reno on Thursday to promote his new book, "Liberty Defined."

On Tuesday, he went to Iowa to announce he is forming an exploratory committee to run for president so he can participate in an upcoming debate in South Carolina.

Then he said the business media were all over him over Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke's news conference on Wednesday. Paul takes some credit for more transparency for what the Federal Reserve Board does.

"I've had the busiest two days on media (compared with) the whole last campaign, through 30 years of public office," Paul said.

Reno, issues

Paul came to Reno on Thursday to continue his tour of college campuses, his greatest recruiting grounds. His rapid-fire speech here was sponsored by the college chapter of Young Americans for Liberty and the Nevada Campaign for Liberty.

Nevada as well as South Carolina and Iowa are three of the four states that kick off the presidential race next year. So it was no coincidence he touched down in Reno two days after announcing his exploratory committee.

Paul said he is against the Federal Reserve Board printing money to accommodate Congress's spending.

"If you don't understand the Federal Reserve, you can't understand deficit financing and runaway entitlements," he said. "And you can't understand how wars are financed.

"If you had to pay for them through taxation, there would be none of these wars. People wouldn't cough up the money."

That anti-war message, he said, is one that draws him support from liberals.

"Progressives who care about civil liberties and who care about the war are totally unhappy with (President) Obama. He started another war. They are really disgusted."

But Paul said he will not consider running as an independent because campaign laws are biased against that.

Paul said he has good support among Nevadans because of his views on limited government, personal liberty and sound money. That's a good match, he said, "with their independent-mindedness."۩

http://www.ronpaulcc2012.com/
http://www.youtube.com/RonPaulCC2012
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ron-Paul-Constitutionally-Correct-For-President-2012/201550256535151