My Opinion on Ron Paul and the CPAC straw poll.

It's a few days late, but here is my opinion of the CPAC straw poll.


First on Ron Paul, I have to say I have no problem with the man. I like him as a person and a Congressman, as a presidential candidate I had some issues with him, first is how much he seems to be a libertarian more then a conservative, while I agree with him on some issues such as securing the borders, abolition of the IRS and the abolition of the income tax, getting rid of the Federal Reserve, though I would probably move some of what the Fed does to the United States Department of the Treasury, and the banning or restriction of abortion. Of course there are a few more issues I might agree with him on. The problem I have with him are, first the issue of our national defence, now I know good number of people now think the issue of going to war with Iraq was a bad choice, but the problem there is the fact Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, a madman, and ignored or evaded every attempt to prove he didn't have WMDs, I know that now we know the intelligence was flawed and some say we should have known that, but the problem with that argument is it ignores just how dangerous Saddam Hussein really was. No matter how I look at the issue on the Iraq War there was no other option in my opinion. Also on the issue of national defence was his first reaction to 9-11 with the idea of letters of marque and reprisal, while it is creative it would only have gone after the terrorists and not their supporters in Afghanistan, though he did vote with the original authorization for use of military force against the terrorists in Afghanistan. Second is the issue of going back on the gold standard or a commodity standard for our currency. You can check my article, The Problem with the Gold Standard, on that one.

Now as to the Issue of the CPAC straw poll, Ron Paul supporters are well know for their support of him and would be far more likely to vote in a straw poll then others. Also while he might have support at the moment, I believe conservatives and the American people are much more likely to support a Ronald Reagen conservative, then a libertarian, not that I don't dislike libertarians but some of their ideas just don't work with true conservatism. If Ron Paul was to become President I think he would do a good job, though he might find some of his ideas may not work out the way he might think they will.

Solomon.