Ron Paul Just Makes Good Sense

Newsmax.com
By Doug Wead
May 17th 2011

Well, I made it. Today, May 17, I am 65 years old.

I love being old. At least I think I do. I have lost my short-term memory or my long-term memory. (I can't remember which one. ) Sometimes I think I have my short-term memory or else I wouldn't know that I had lost it.

When I was a young man I had a great memory but I didn't know anything. So I ask you. What's so great about remembering nothing? At least now I have lots of things that I have forgotten.

Ron Paul

I like George Smiley, the old spy in the John LeCarre trilogy. He had to be called back to save the situation. That's kinda how I see Congressman Ron Paul. If there was someone younger who was right on the issues we wouldn't need to bother him, but sorry, Ron, you are needed once again. Come back and save your country.

People who say that Ron Paul is too old to be president, that old people are forgetful, need to consider this.

He remembered his wedding vows. Not many presidential candidates can claim that. He's been married to the same woman for 51 years. Politicians try to convince us that private promises don't matter. A person's personal life is not relevant to their public duty. But if they lie to their wife and children what makes you so sure they are telling YOU the truth?

Ron Paul has always remembered to pay his taxes. It seems a good portion of President Barack Obama's Cabinet, including his own secretary of the Treasury can't claim that. Oh they say that they will make it all good now but what if they hadn't been named to the Cabinet? You mean there are thousands of people out there who just ignore the rules and get away with it? Only suckers like me pay taxes?

Ron Paul points out some very obvious, common-sense things that you can't get out of your head. For example, according to the Constitution, the U. S. Congress is supposed to write the legislation and debate it and spend the money, but the Federal Reserve actually spends more money than the U. S. Congress. Huh?

Nobody elects them or even audits them and their board meetings are closed. I wonder if any of them pay their taxes?

Until Obama appoints them to something that requires Senate confirmation we will never know. Not that it matters. They not only have "insider" information, they are the "insiders." Ha.

When they are thinking, they are getting insider information. And they can literally make money. I'm not bitter about that. Just troubled by the corruption of the American Constitution and troubled for the nation.

Ron Paul may be the oldest candidate but he seems to care more about the youth of this country than any of them. He is the only one who seems to remember that the young people will have to pay for the money we are now borrowing.

He is the only one who would stop the endless wars and bring our boys home. That 1 percent who are dying for the rest of us and seeing their marriages break up and their children bitter and their suicide rates spike.

He is the only one who points out the absurdities of our foreign policy. We give $ 3 billion to Israel and $12 billion to her avowed enemies.

We invade Afghanistan because they are harboring Osama bin Laden. Our war results in the death of thousands of civilians and coalition soldiers. But when bin Laden crosses the border into Pakistan we give that country close to $12 billion in aid. I guess that was to pay for the food for bin Laden and his three wives. Not to mention, his cable bill, all the extra thumb drives and his porno movie downloads.

Even now, only Ron Paul is calling for us to stop this nonsense. As of today, we are still giving money to Pakistan. Ron Paul seems to be the only person in public life who remembers what our mother's taught us about the playground. If you have to pay money to your friends, then they aren't your friends.

Most of all, Ron Paul still remembers the U.S. Constitution and he knows it by heart. And believes in it. You can't say that about Barack Obama or any of the other Republican candidates. There are the candidates and then there is Ron Paul. He stands alone.

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Ron Paul: Why The Young Flock To An Old Idealist

NPR
By Robert Smith
May 16th 2011

NPR has been profiling some of the Republicans who are considering a presidential run in 2012, to find out what first sparked their interest in politics. Read more of those profiles.

Go to any Ron Paul event and it strikes you immediately: What's up with all the young people?

The 75-year-old Texas congressman packs halls on college campuses. His campaign volunteers often look too young to shave. And even at a recent New York City book signing, it's surprising how many teenagers and 20-somethings are lined up for an autograph, clutching Paul's new book, Liberty Defined.

Sixteen-year-old Rob Gray says the age of the crowd doesn't seem odd to him.

It's "the old canard of the young being more open-minded than the old," he says.

Paul, the world's most unlikely teen idol, is running again for president.

Enlarge Charlie Neibergall/AP A supporter holds a sign as Paul speaks in Des Moines, Iowa, in April.

He failed to reach the White House twice before: In 1988, running as a Libertarian, he got less than 1 percent of the vote; in 2008, he made a losing shot at the Republican nomination.

But don't expect the man to reinvent himself. Paul is nothing if not consistent. He still wants to shut down the Federal Reserve; still wants to slash the size of government and bring the troops home. Already in the first Republican primary debate, he restated his long-held belief that drugs should be legalized.

It's a unique set of beliefs for a congressman, but that's why his fans love him.

At the New York City event, the young people keep packing into the bookstore. The line starts in the children's section, moves through self-help and recovery, past the memoirs and along the great ideas bookshelf.

When Paul arrives, he sits down in the World History section, and his bushy eyebrows go up in surprise.

Paul says it still amazes him when kids want to talk about the Federal Reserve.

"When I was in high school and college, at the age many of those young people are now, I didn't have much interest in politics at all," Paul says. "I was probably more interested in trying to get into medical school."

Peter Southwick/AP In 1988, then-Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ron Paul speaks at a rally at Boston's Faneuil Hall.

Looking back at his youth, you can see the spark that drove Paul is the same as the one that inspires his fans: a desire for a unified philosophy to make sense of the world.

But for Paul, the ideological search wouldn't come until he was in medical school in the 1950s at Duke University. He was looking for a hobby when he wasn't studying. He didn't want to golf, he says. But he loved to read.

Paul seemed especially taken by a book his mother gave him: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

You can see how the book would resonate: It's about a young, idealistic doctor who wants nothing to do with politics until he is co-opted into the Russian Revolution.

"I was intrigued with this whole idea of Communism and the terrible conditions in Russia and the way Zhivago had to put up with this," Paul says.

It was all about the value of individual liberty. Soon Paul found an economic theory with the same message. He devoured books by the Austrian economists F.A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, writing about free-market capitalism.

"It was sort of like a game about how the monetary system worked," he says.

By then you could probably call Paul a libertarian. But he still shunned politics. He just wanted to be a doctor. He moved to Texas and delivered babies.

Still, Paul quietly lived his principles. He would treat any patient who came to him, but he wouldn't accept federal payments like Medicare and Medicaid. He didn't try to change the world — until the world changed on him.

"I remember that day very clearly: Aug. 15, 1971," Paul says. "It was a Sunday night when the announcement came."

Enlarge Daugherty/AP Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul (fourth from right), Idaho Republican Rep. George Hansen (left) and other members of Congress gather around a truck loaded with 44,300 simulated gold bricks on April 25, 1979, in Washington to indicate their opposition to the estimated $4.1 billion it would cost U.S. taxpayers to give away the Panama Canal.

President Nixon addressed the nation and said he was suspending the convertibility of the dollar into gold. The gold standard was over.

For an Austrian-economics buff like Paul, this was akin to declaring the end of the world. He had learned to hate the idea of paper money backed only by the promises of the government. He thought it would lead to massive inflation.

But even hearing Nixon didn't push Paul to run for office. The real spark came the day after the U.S. left the gold standard, when Paul realized that most of the world didn't seem to care.

"The stock market went up a record amount as a consequence of this disastrous announcement," Paul remembers. "And my interpretation was, my Lord, what's going on here? They are doing everything wrong, and everybody loves it."

So Paul ran for Congress in 1974 because, he says, laughing, "Who wanted to hear me talk about economics while practicing medicine?"

Paul lost but later won a seat from his coastal Texas district in a special election in 1976. In the following years, Paul would move in and out of Congress. He was elected 11 more times. But he never got the U.S. any closer to returning to the gold standard. He was always a lonely voice in Congress, and still is.

Paul rails against government spending — and the budget goes up. He argues against wars — and the troops keep fighting. He calls for the legalization of drugs — and nothing happens.

Even Paul jokes about his lousy track record at changing the world. But when he announced his third run for president, he said perhaps the world is finally coming around to his way of thinking.

It turns out that some young people were listening.

At the New York book signing, every 20-something remembers their Ron Paul spark. For most, it was discovering YouTube videos of Paul's two earlier runs for president.

It's not hard to see the attraction for a college student. They've just left home. They don't want anyone, not their parents, not the government, telling them what to do.

"I think it's just the concept of freedom, being able to choose what you want with your life," says 26-year-old Kenneth Christiansen.

But there's something more that explains Paul's following. Every young person fears that getting older means a life full of compromises. A few at the book signing even mentioned that someday they may have to support a candidate with a better chance of winning, but not now.

Gray, the teenager, says Paul gives him hope — "that not everyone is a sellout; not everyone is controlled by special interests. There are people who still stick to their principles."

And in that idealistic way, you can say that Paul never grew up.

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President Paul Would Have Killed Bin Laden Earlier

Elected Org
May 15th 2011


The Founding Fathers of the United States included a passage in the Constitution, which allowed for a solution to problems like the ones the US faced after the attacks on 9/11. Rather than invading multiple countries in search of a ragtag crew of air pirates, Letters of Marque and Reprisal would have allowed for the President to pursue the individuals responsible for the attack in a precise manner.

After the attacks on 9/11, Congressman Ron Paul introduced a bill in the Congress, which would have specified the scope for a mission to take down the terrorists responsible for the attacks on 9/11. First and foremost, the proposal was Constitutional and secondly, it was highly targeted and wouldn’t have resulted in thousands of Americans being killed senselessly. Had Congressman Ron Paul’s proposal for letters of Marque and Reprisal, HR 3076,  been passed by the United States Congress in October of 2001, trillions of dollars and thousands of lives would not have been lost in the search for Osama bin Laden.

September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001 – Authorizes and requests the President to issue letters of marque and reprisal to commission privately armed and equipped persons and entities to seize outside of the United States the person and property of Osama bin Laden, of any al Qaeda co-conspirator, and any conspirator with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda who are responsible for the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, including any similar planned acts against the United States in the future. Authorizes the President to place a bounty, from amounts appropriated on September 14, 2001, in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Recovery from and Response to Terrorists Attacks on the United States or from private sources, for the capture, dead or alive, of Osama bin Laden or any other al Qaeda conspirator responsible for the act of air piracy upon the United States on September 11, 2001.

As early as 2007, Ron Paul predicted that Pakistan harbored Osama bin Laden and in a speech on the floor of Congress, stated,

The foolishness of our foreign policy has us spending money in Pakistan, a military dictatorship with nuclear weapons, which is harboring Osama Bin Laden. The irony that taxpayers are paying to help protect Osama Bin Laden is astounding.

It goes without saying that President Paul would have killed Osama bin Laden far quicker and with more finesse than both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

To claim that the mission to kill bin Laden was successful is tantamount to suggesting that getting an ‘A’ on a test after attempting it every day for 10 years deserves a pat on the back. It doesn’t deserve a pat on the back, no, it deserves a punch in the face. The decade long mission only served to expose the incompetence of the United States to the international community. Invading over 3 countries, killing over one hundred thousand innocent civilians, losing thousands of soldiers, and squandering trillions of dollars for a single man hiding in compound, in a nation which had been given billions of taxpayer dollars, was not worth it. The aforementioned were only the foreign consequences of the mission to kill bin Laden. Domestic consequences of the War on Terror include the passage of the PATRIOT Act, which violates the 4th and 5th Amendments, the inception of the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA, torture at Guantanamo Bay, and other gross violations of civil liberties.
Sure, the end goal was achieved, but it was achieved with the dexterity of a heavily armed 5 year old child.

Both in foreign policy and economics, progressives believe that throwing massive sums of money and human bodies at problems solves them. Progressives cannot solve problems, but only enlarge them because neither the Constitution nor logic fit into their socialist philosophy. The only American, Constitutional solution for finding bin Laden after 9/11 was offered by true conservatives like Ron Paul.

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Ron Paul: "Our Revolution is HERE!!"

Daily Paul

May 14th 2011

Dear Liberty Activist,

Yesterday, I stood in the town hall in Exeter, New Hampshire, with a packed house of fellow Liberty Lovers and announced that I am a candidate for President of the United States.

And, let me tell you, the response has been tremendous!
We have been overwhelmed with media attention and interview requests.

Just yesterday, I did nine national television interviews, as well as many New Hampshire–based appearances, and I even had to turn down many more. And, on Sunday, I will be the lead guest on Fox News Sunday.

But, more importantly, I have seen an outpouring of support from friends in Iowa, New Hampshire, and all across the country. Thousands of calls and emails have poured in offering support and encouragement.

Our REVOLUTION is now in a new phase. As the numbers build and the polling surges, we stand poised to win major political battles and take our Liberty back.

You and I know that America is the greatest nation in human history. Belief in Liberty, limited government, and sound money made us the freest and most prosperous people in the world.

But we are in danger. Two trillion dollar deficits, soaring inflation, endless foreign wars, and an ever-growing federal government threaten the very fabric of our nation.

All the work we have done together for the past decades has brought us to this place. We are challenging the status quo, and, if we come together now in these crucial times, we can win.

This REVOLUTION will be hard work. It will require long hours from all of us. And, as we threaten the power elites, we will be attacked. We will face smears, defaming, and dirty tricks.

But, I know that our mission is crucial. Please work with me and help give each other strength as we fight for Liberty.

So, as we launch this new campaign, I pledge the following to you:

1. I will work as hard as I can and do everything in my ability to make this campaign a success.

2. We will build the strongest team we possibly can and execute the best, most professional effort in our power.

3. I will never compromise and never, ever back down.

Over the next few weeks, my team will continue to build the top notch campaign organization our REVOLUTION requires. I will be working to put in place the staff, resources, equipment, and technology necessary to help ensure this campaign is a success.

Please plug in with them over the next few weeks and find out what you can do. And please, always be patient as we deploy our plan. There will be an important job for everyone willing to contribute.

As we launch this campaign, I continue to draw my strength from you. Whenever I get tired or feel discouraged by the scope of our problems, I lean on all the passion across the country and am reinvigorated. I thank you for that, from the bottom of my heart.

Let’s make this REVOLUTION truly historic!
For Liberty,

Ron Paul

(emphasis mine)

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The Case for Ron Paul for President

Fox News.com

By Jesse Benton

May 13th 2011

Editor's note: Fox News Opinion has invited every candidate who has officially announced their intention to seek their Party's nomination to submit an op-ed making their case to the American people. 

America is the greatest nation in human history. Belief in Liberty, limited government, and sound money made us the freest and most prosperous people in the world.

But we have strayed far from our founding principles, and America now faces unprecedented challenges. Two trillion dollar deficits, soaring inflation, disregard for civil liberties, and an ever-growing federal bureaucracy threaten the very fabric of our country and the futures of our children and grandchildren.

We are spending ourselves into oblivion. The out of control Federal Reserve is destroying our dollar. Big government is undermining our personal freedoms. And, our foreign policy has us playing world’s policeman -- straining our military, draining our resources, and making us more vulnerable.

Congressman Ron Paul has been leading the fight against these problems for decades. And, he has consistently confronted these challenges with common-sense solutions: real spending cuts and adherence to the Constitution.

Ron Paul’s record of principled leadership is unparalleled. He has always fought for America’s constitutional values, even when it required him to stand alone in Congress, and no other leader in this country has a track record to match.

Dr. Paul had the vision to see where big government ideas would take us,as well as the courage to speak out when others refused to acknowledge what was coming. He predicted the housing bubble and the financial crisis and knows that these problems, caused by excessive spending and artificial credit, will not be solved by more of the same. As president of the United States, Ron Paul will have the strength and integrity to make the hard choices it will take to fix our country.

Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who would cut enough spending to avert a debt crisis. Only he will restore constitutionally sound money. And, only he will strengthen our national defense by bringing our troops home and putting an end to the nation-building that is draining our country.

Americans are sick and tired of politicians who say one thing, do another, and conveniently switch their stands in time to run for higher office. Many candidates will give lip service to the problems we face, but when the rubber meets the road, how can we trust them to follow through?

America needs a president we can believe in. Dr. Paul’s unimpeachable integrity stands alone in a political environment crowded with opportunists and Johnny-come-latelies.

In these trying times, America needs the leadership that only Ron Paul can provide. America has moved far away from her traditions. We need a true statesman to lead us back to our roots and restore our Liberty.

Ron Paul is that man, and now is the time to take action. I hope America will join me in supporting Ron Paul for President of the United States in 2012.

Jesse Benton is political director for Congressman Ron Paul.

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The Ron Paul I Know

Lewrockwell.com
By Carol Paul
December 14th 2007

The story of our family would have to start with the man Ron Paul, who saw the American Dream and decided that it could be his – and now he wants it to be yours if you so choose.

Ron's grandfather came from Germany at the age of 14 with his father. After just six months in this country, his father died and he had to make his way in a new country with a new language. He became a truck farmer in a small town in Pennsylvania. He eventually married, and had four sons and one daughter. The second son was Howard Paul, Ron's father.

Howard Paul, along with two of his brothers, continued to run the dairy that his father started from the basement garage of their home. They had horse-drawn delivery wagons. Howard was able, with an 8^th-grade education, to build a dairy with 20 refrigerated trucks and a modern dairy building. Ron's mother kept the books and raised five sons, who were all born within seven years during the 1930's.

Ron was the third son of Howard and Margaret Paul, and was brought up with the ethic that you worked six days a week and went to church on the seventh. Ron's first job at age 5 was to watch his uncle wash the bottles and put them on a conveyer belt. He got a penny for every dirty bottle that he found. He was serious about his job and was very proud that he could help.

Ron delivered newspapers in grade school early in the morning. He had to put the newspapers inside the screen doors and not just throw them in the yard. And speaking of yards, he mowed a lot of lawns, and he didn't have a self-propelled lawnmower. He paid for his first year of college with newspaper and lawn-mowing money.

During high school, Ron worked in a drug store – his brothers said he worked there so he could eat ice cream whenever he wanted it – but he learned a lot about business and pharmacy that helped in years to come. He also had a part-time job painting the school in the summer and delivering furniture for a local store. In college, he delivered laundry, and he even delivered mail during the Christmas holidays.

I came into the picture about 1952 when Ron was my escort to my 16th birthday party. Don't tell anyone – but I asked him... actually my birthday is February 29th and it was a Sadie Hawkins-type party where the girls asked the boys... and I asked him.

Ron was a track star in high school, winning state as a junior in the 220-yard dash and in the 440. He ran the 100 in 9.8, and that was pretty fast for the early 1950s. He was also on the wrestling team. He was president of the student council and an honor student while working and participating in sports.

A serious knee injury took him out of major track (he beat one young man who went to the Olympics), but he added swimming for therapy and soon became a member of the college swim team. He was offered a full college scholarship to run track but did not accept it, feeling he might not be able to regain his speed. To this day he exercises with bicycle riding, walking, and swimming, and feels lucky that he can do these sports.

We went away to college (different colleges in different states), but always kept in touch. On February 1, 1957, we married in a beautiful ceremony with the bridesmaids carrying armloads of red roses. The flower girl wore a white dress and sprinkled rose petals down the aisle. A fraternity brother of Ron's sang "The Wedding Prayer" and the "Lord's Prayer." Of course, both are very special to us today.

We spent his last semester in college married, and living on the third floor of an old home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I worked as secretary to the faculty and attended some evening classes with Ron. For one year Ron was manager of the college coffee shop called "The Bullet Hole." He worked as steward and house manager for his fraternity, and had a small scholastic scholarship to help finance his way through college.

After college, we headed to Durham, North Carolina, where Ron attended Duke University School of Medicine. I worked as a medical secretary, and our first two children were born at Duke. We had a tiny little blue frame house that my grandmother called the "Doll House." We thought it was wonderful.

We were able to buy a registered collie for our big backyard, and she helped raise our first two children. Actually, she got us home one Thanksgiving because she had a litter of puppies – and we were able to sell one for $35, which gave us enough money for gas to drive home so the family could see our two beautiful children.

After medical school, we lived in Detroit, Michigan, where Ron did an internship and one year of an Internal Medicine Residency. I ran a dancing school in the basement of our home and taught ballet and tap dancing and baton twirling. Just to tell you what kind of budget we were on, the dancing school paid for the newspaper and for extra expenses we had when a month had five weeks!

When the Cuban Crisis came, Ron answered his country's call and became a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force. We received orders to move to San Antonio, Texas. On our way to Texas, we stopped in Pennsylvania long enough to have our third child delivered. Then we gathered up our kids and dogs and took off for Texas.

Arriving with three children from ages 4 to 3 weeks old, we loved Texas immediately. Finding out we didn't have to bother with snowsuits, mittens, and boots was an extra gift.

Even when Ron was in the military, we kept working. I learned to cake decorate, which I have put to good use over the past years. And Ron learned to fly a plane, and he worked extra emergency-room duty. They were fun-filled years.

We spent Ron's tour of duty in San Antonio. When his tour was up, he completed his OB/GYN medical training, but he did stay in the Air National Guard for several years. He always believed that America should be ready to defend her borders.

Then in 1968, on July 3rd we arrived in Brazoria County, Texas, and that has been our home since that day. Ron has delivered more than 4,000 babies, and we have been married for more than 50 years. We've raised a family of five children, and they have given us eighteen beautiful grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. We have friends all over the State of Texas as well as friends throughout the United States who believe in limited government. That in itself is a testimony to a great and humble man.

So the American Dream came true for a boy who delivered newspapers, a teen-ager who mowed lawns, delivered milk, delivered furniture, delivered laundry, and delivered mail, and for a man who then delivered babies. Now that dream continues with a man who is trying to deliver the message that freedom works and that true patriotism must not grow weak in the hearts of Americans, so that we can hang on to our Republic, for which the Founders gave their last, full measure of devotion.

December 14, 2007

Carol Paul [send her mail] is the wife of one, the mother of five, the grandmother of 18, and the great grandmother of one.

Copyright © 2007 LewRockwell.com

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Tea party godfather Ron Paul running for president

Associated Press

By Jay Root
May 13th 2011

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Rep. Ron Paul announced Friday that he will run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012, the third attempt for the man known on Capitol Hill as "Dr. No" for his enthusiasm for bashing runaway spending and government overreach.

"Time has come around to the point where the people are agreeing with much of what I've been saying for 30 years. So, I think the time is right," said the 75-year-old Paul, who first ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988.

Paul made his announcement in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" from New Hampshire, where he planned his first event for his presidential campaign on Friday.

Three years ago, the former flight surgeon and outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve became an Internet sensation — and a prodigious fundraiser_ when he made a spirited but doomed bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

First elected to Congress in 1976, he is known for holding unconventional views while keeping a smile on his face, espousing a sort of modern Republican populism.

The obstetrician has delivered more than 4,000 babies and is personally against abortion, but he doesn't think the federal government should regulate it. That's a function of state government, he says.

He has also said he wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, favors returning the United States to the gold standard in monetary policy and wants the U.S out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Democrats have tried repeatedly to beat him in a congressional district that stretches from the outskirts of Corpus Christi to Galveston. But the independent swath of coastal Texas seems a good fit for the maverick doctor. He has 18 grandchildren, according to his website, and he and his wife of 54 years, Carol, are known widely in Paul's district for the cookbooks they give away to supporters.

"The secret to his success is his authenticity," said Democratic consultant Jeff Crosby, who grew up in Paul's district. "He's an authentic nut."

Crosby, who worked to defeat Paul in 2006 — unsuccessfully — described the difficulty he had trying to persuade voters to reject what he thought were the candidate's radical views.

"Just the mere fact that he does what he says he's going to do, regardless of how nutty or ineffective it may be, they like it," Crosby said. "A lot of folks along the coast have never expected much from government, and they're getting it."

Paul, a native of Pittsburgh, is both a spiritual father and actual father in the tea party movement. His son, tea party darling Rand Paul, won a Senate seat in Kentucky last year and has become an ardent proponent of spending cuts and smaller government.

As far back as 2007, long before people were evoking the fabled Boston Tea Party to symbolize their disgust with an overtaxing central government, Ron Paul was hosting a "Tea Party Fundraiser" aboard a shrimp boat near Galveston.

Organizer and Paul campaign volunteer Elizabeth Day remembers that supporters wore period dress and rolled fake barrels of tea into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

"When people come to believe in Ron Paul, there is a passion that burns within us," said Day, a 57-year-old oil company revenue analyst. "To me, Ron Paul is the tea party."

The elder Paul has built coalitions that include senior citizen "granny warriors" and pot-smoking libertarians. During his 1988 presidential run, High Times magazine, which caters to marijuana users, published a cover story under the headline, "Ron Paul: Pro-Pot Presidential Candidate."

Paul has expressed the view that the states, not the federal government, should regulate vices like pornography and drugs.

What sets Paul apart most from his GOP brethren are his views that defense spending needs to shrink and that the U.S. should get out of its two wars. Paul says the conflicts are financially unsustainable — and another drag on a battered U.S. dollar that he believes is on the verge of collapse.

He also disputes a fundamental underpinning of the war in Iraq, namely that Islamic terrorists must be stopped overseas before they can attack the United States.

"They came over here because we were over there," Paul said in the run-up to the 2008 campaign. "We occupy their territory. It would be like if the Chinese had their navy in the Gulf of Mexico."

Paul has routinely turned down pork-barrel spending for his own district, but he has earned praise at home for refusing to sign up for lucrative pension benefits to which he is entitled as a member of Congress. Paul took a break from the House after his failed 1988 presidential bid but was re-elected in 1996.

Though he has voiced support for term limits, Paul has been in Congress for almost 30 years. Thanks to a law first crafted for Texas-born President Lyndon Johnson, he was able to run for the House and the presidency at the same time in 2008. Supporters figure he'll do the same in 2012.

Former Texas GOP gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina counts herself among the die-hard Ron Paul followers who won't let age, unconventional views or the professed tea party proclivities of other candidates shake her away from the soft-spoken presidential contender.

"All the Republicans say we need to reduce spending," said Medina. "They talk about it, but they don't actually deliver on those promises. He's different."

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