All right, I'll try to cool it with the Ron Paul posts

but I've gotta tell ya, I really like the campaign's new blog.

I think we can trust Daniel McCarthy not to "do THAT again," though I strongly encourage you to head over there and keep them honest.

[Oops! I made a rather important typo last time around. I said "can't trust McCarthy." That's a big oops! 1/13/08]

BTW, McCarthy (and I) encourage(s) anyone who has problems with Paul's foreign policy ideas to check out the transcript of the Russert interview. I know for a fact that the transcriber had some problems, but you'll still come away with a better understanding of how Paul, as president, would try to run...I don't want to say "the country," let me just say "his administration."

Let me help him/her out:

All right...now I can't find where he said something [inaudible] about the Department of Education. The word was either "cut" or "eliminate." Or, possibly "abolish."

REP. PAUL: Yeah, no. The point is, Randolph Bourne says war is a helpless state. ...

Bourne's most famous work is War Is the Health of the State.

I think that paragraph deserves quoting in full:

REP. PAUL: Yeah, no. The point is, Randolph Bourne says war is a helpless state. I believe that statement. When you have war, whether it's a war against drugs, war against terrorism, war, war overseas, war--the mentality of the people change and they're more willing to sacrifice their liberties in order to be safe and secure. So, yes, right after 9/11 my reaction was, you know, it's going to be a lot tougher selling liberty. But I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm still in the business of selling liberty and the Constitution and there's still a lot of enthusiasm for it. So all the American people don't agree that we have to have the nanny state and have the government taking care of us. So I have been encouraged. I might have been too pessimistic immediately after 9/11 because, in a way, it has caused this reaction and this uprising in this country to say, "Enough is enough. We don't need more Patriot Acts, we don't need more surveillance of our people. We don't need national ID cards. We don't need the suspension of habeas corpus. What we need is more freedom." So in one way I was pessimistic, but in another way, now, I'm more encouraged with the reception I'm getting with this message.

I think you can fill in the rest of the blanks. The Randolph Bourne thing probably wasn't generally known, so that needed to be done. The issues raised in the quoted paragraph I want to be seriously debated. With Paul's position seriously considered.

And, I want to say this: I want Paul's hand on the Veto pen. If he gives us four years of Gridlock, I think that's just great. There'll be screaming and yelling and gnashing of teeth. There'll be overridden vetoes...probably by the score. But the Founders' vision for our Government was that Congress would control this country, and the President would obey their laws (and, I'm pretty sure President Paul would obey their Declarations as well, to the best of his ability).

And I'm not fond of pure democracy: I don't like 51% overruling the wishes of 49% - 60/40 comes considerably closer to my ideal.

Yeah, I'd like a Paul Presidency.