US election 2012: Ron Paul surges in Iowa

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...s-in-Iowa.html

US election 2012: Ron Paul joins the frontrunners in Iowa

Ron Paul is plotting what polls indicate could be a surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses on January 3 in the first step to chossing the Republican presidential candidate.

His fellow candidates regard him as a crank and the Republican establishment has long regarded his anti-war tirades as bizarre and derided his following as cult-like. But Ron Paul, the septuagenarian Texas congressman who ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988, is hoping to have the last laugh as he plots what polls indicate could be a surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses on January 3.

In a Republican contest of extraordinary volatility, only Dr Paul and Mitt Romney, the establishment favourite, have exhibited a consistent level of support. Like Mr Romney, Dr Paul has built a nationwide campaign structure and has the money to stay in the race well beyond the early-voting states. While it remains unlikely that Dr Paul, who at 77 on election day would be the oldest ever president of the United States on taking office, could win his party’s nomination, his impact on the outcome could be significant. In what has been a largely collegial Republican primary race, Dr Paul, an obstetrician, has been noteworthy for his determination never to praise any of his fellow candidates. On Friday, he appeared on the Jay Leno Show and took the opportunity to lambast them.

Asked what he thought of Michele Bachmann, who defeated him in the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa in August, he slowed his voice and said that “she doesn’t like Muslims, she hates them, she wants to go get ’em”. Mrs Bachmann, who condemned the accusation as an “outrageous statement”, had clashed angrily with Dr Paul in an Iowa debate last week over his insistence that “the greatest danger” was not that Iran would get a nuclear weapon but that “we will have a president that will overreact and we will soon bomb Iran”. She responded that she had never “heard a more dangerous answer for American security than the one that we just heard from Ron Paul”. He hit back that to “declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims and say all Muslims are the same, this is dangerous talk”.

The serving soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan say enough of the wars

His heated exchanges with Mrs Bachmann could damage Dr Paul because they highlight the area in which he is farthest removed from most Republican primary voters, who tend to be more hawkish. But the 2012 election is unlikely to be fought on foreign policy and Dr Paul’s crusading views on limited government and fiscal restraint resonate with Tea Party supporters. Dr Paul, who ran for the Republican nomination in 2008, has a long-established base of fervent supporters who laud his insistence on strict adherence to the United States constitution, his staunch opposition to foreign intervention and his unyielding views on debt and deficits. His fundraising, always strong, has increased in the 2012 campaign and he has steadily risen in the polls to third place nationally behind Newt Gingrich, who has surged to the front of the Republican pack but is now slipping, and Mr Romney.

More significant than his national standing is his strength in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. The Real Clear Politics average in Iowa puts Dr Paul just four points behind Mr Gingrich in Iowa with some polls showing him in a statistical tie for the lead. Dr Paul could benefit from a bunching in the field in Iowa, where victory could give him the momentum and money-raising boost to be in the top two in New Hampshire, which votes a week later. In the past week, Mr Gingrich has been on the slide in Iowa while Mr Romney, as ever, has held steady and was given a major boost over the weekend when the “Des Moines Register” newspaper endorsed him.

He's first/second now in the Iowa polls which is the first Republican battleground for the 2012 Presidential nomination and it could very well give him the boost to win other key states where he is doing rather well in. On a nation level for Republican nominee he's now third behind Romney and Gingrich and rising. Out of all the candidates

# End the wars
# End the Fed
# Cut $1 trillion from the budget in year one
# Restore the constitution and follow it
# End the federal departments of Health, Education and others

Whats not to like? thoughts?

[Chippiewill]

I think he's the best person for the job, although..


It's a shame that the american media control so much of the election outcome.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I don't think creationism is all that important in running the United States, do you, but as it stands he'll do what the constitution is for and allow states themselves to decide what education policy is (evolution vs creationism).

It's a shame that the american media control so much of the election outcome.

Indeed, if he wins Iowa they'll do their best to dismiss it just as they did when he won all the major straw polls.

[Eoin247]

While he has some interesting ideas, he is far too controversial and extreme to win the presidential election or even the republican nomination. You must remember that for most people in America the amount of change he would potentially bring about scares them. People fear change.

[-:Undertaker:-]

While he has some interesting ideas, he is far too controversial and extreme to win the presidential election or even the republican nomination. You must remember that for most people in America the amount of change he would potentially bring about scares them. People fear change.

The polls show he's the only Republican candidate who is capable of winning Obama, he comes 1% behind Obama in a Paul vs Obama race.

[Eoin247]

The polls show he's the only Republican candidate who is capable of winning Obama, he comes 1% behind Obama in a Paul vs Obama race.

Hmm, i did not know about that poll that truth be said. Who is doing this poll?

I'm reading one of his book currently (Liberty defined) and whilst i admit he has some good ideas, i can't see a lot of what he plans to do sitting very well with a great deal of Americans.

[Fez]

I think he's the best person for the job, although..


It's a shame that the american media control so much of the election outcome.

Nothing wrong with being a creationist until those beliefs start forcing stuff upon others.

[FiftyCal]

Ron Paul is my Hero, i would love to see him run for president. He will end the federal reserve/income tax so we can have all of our money we earn, legalize drugs so the violent cartel will go away and stop selling drugs, and restore and follow our constitution like the way it was written and meant to be followed, for example, with 2nd amendment with the right to bear arms, all small arms will be legalized such as Automatic weapons. Go Ron!