GRANITEVILLE, S.C. — Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul didn’t seem to mind Friday that he has campaigned less aggressively in South Carolina than he did in other early voting states.
But it was far from clear during a whirlwind circuit around the state the day before the crucial Southern primary whether the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman would send a message here as his outsider candidacy did in Iowa and New Hampshire.
aul drew a crowd of several hundred in Greenville despite heavy rain and frigid temperatures.
“When we were flying and the weather was getting bad, I thought, is anyone going to show up?” Paul said, clearly buoyed by the turnout. The audience cheered.
It was a far different scene early Friday, before Paul began a six-city tour of South Carolina in a small plane. He drew fewer than 100 people to a cavernous airplane hangar in North Charleston, although the audience did include some die-hard supporters.
“When you hear the word principle, you think of Ron Paul . He’s the embodiment of that,” said Derek Smith, a 26-year-old engineer for the Navy in Charleston. “If he were to run as a third-party candidate, I would vote for him unconditionally.
Paul is relying on his army of youthful volunteers, many of them post-9/11 veterans who are emblematic of the generational divide over the role of the military, to serve as foot soldiers in his battle to change minds.
Older generations of veterans, raised during the Cold War, might have a more traditional view of the US role in global politics, as the sole superpower, according to Kapeluck. “The younger generation is living through globalization, and are perhaps more comfortable with the United States having a diminished role in being the policeman of the world.’’
Stephen Spalding, a 24-year-old junior grade officer at the naval base near Charleston, has been campaigning for Paul. He was drawn, he said, by Paul’s steadfast stance on stanching the national debt by curbing spending and on his plans to bring troops home.
Others on active duty expressed similar sentiments but declined to have their names published in fear of violating Pentagon rules prohibiting some forms of open display of political partisanship when in uniform.
Spalding said his support for Paul runs deep, but he takes care to campaign in his civilian attire.
“When it comes to his foreign policy, he’s not going to budge from it, even if it’s unpopular among the Republican establishment,’’ said Spalding, who earlier this week went door-to-door to generate support for Paul.
When he came upon the home of Melissa Woodard, 42, he found a convert. “I liked Obama,’’ said Woodard, “but we’re in serious trouble here. . . . We need to look at our problems here in the US,’’ she said, referring to the sluggish economy. “We’re in desperate straits.’’ Woodard said she had made up her mind to vote for Paul.
Ron Paul has made no secret the fact that he thought that the South was right in the Civil War. Here he is giving a speech in front of a giant Confederate Flag about why he believes the North was wrong in the Civil War and why the South was right.
Ron Paul is a neo-Confederate, and proud member of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, which has been labeled as a neo-Confederate organization. In the video he claims that the North should have paid to buy slaves from southern slave owners to avoid the war, rather than the South renouncing slavery. Paul also fails to bring up the fact that it was the South that started the war by attacking the North in 1861.
Ron Paul was also was the only member of congress to vote against honoring the Civil Rights Act Of 1964 in on its 40th anniversary in 2004. Paul would also claim that he wouldn’t have voted for it at the time, putting him on the side of the racists in both the fight against slavery and the fight against Jim Crow segregation, the two defining struggles of Black people in America.
Ron Paul presidency will rein in out of control regulatory agencies," Bunker said. "I also applaud Ron's valiant effort to protect the unborn, defend the Second Amendment and secure our borders."
Paul wants to cut federal spending by $1 trillion in the first year. Both parties consider that heresy but are not really talking about meaningful spending cuts, he said.
"The only reassurance I get is when I meet with people like you," Paul said. "People are recognizing there are too many special interests. We're spending $1 trillion a year on military operations and foreign aid. Why not spend it at home?
Aiken resident Seth Miller worked for the Democratic Party in Georgia in 2008 and helped coordinate a campaign for a Democratic candidate in North Carolina two years later. Since then, he has become disenchanted with both political parties.
"I don't like special interests running elections," Miller said. "I want to end the domestic and foreign wars. Even if Dr. Paul doesn't win, it will be a strong statement to the policymakers that a lot of people are in support of that. I would not consider myself a Republican or Democrat. I'm an American."
Paul has had to defend himself recently from 1980s and '90s newsletters published by him with racially-offensive statements. He didn't mention that Friday but has said he didn't write them. Miller isn't concerned about that controversy.
"If you're voting for somebody for public office, none of them are going to be squeaky clean," Miler said. "Dr. Paul is so honest, and he's going to do what he says he will do."
GRANITEVILLE, S.C. — Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul didn’t seem to mind Friday that he has campaigned less aggressively in South Carolina than he did in other early voting states.
But it was far from clear during a whirlwind circuit around the state the day before the crucial Southern primary whether the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman would send a message here as his outsider candidacy did in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“I took a day off of the campaign trail,” Paul told an audience of about 200 in a packed banquet hall outside Aiken. “I wanted to make sure I was recorded voting against the national debt limit.”
The remark, explaining Paul’s temporary departure in the campaign Wednesday to vote in Congress, ignited cheers from the audience in southwestern South Carolina.
Paul drew a crowd of several hundred in Greenville despite heavy rain and frigid temperatures.
Among those to receive a cookbook straight from Mrs. Paul’s purse on Thursday was South Carolina Sen. Danny Verdin, who endorsed Mr. Paul earlier this week. “The chocolate-chip cookie recipe looks like an absolute winner,” he said at a campaign stop at Bobby’s Bar-B-Q here on Friday. “By Sunday night, I plan to have given it a shot.”
The Paul campaign initially ordered 10,000 copies, but ran out early in Iowa, spokesman Gary Howard said Friday. Currently blowing through its second batch, the campaign expects to order a third round, Mr. Howard said. Distributed free at campaign stops, the cookbook is also sold at the Paul website for $8, while a signed copy was recently being sold on eBay for $59.99.
Stefano Mugnaini, a Charleston minister, said he might try a recipe on Saturday. “On primary night I might cook something from the Ron Paul cookbook just for solidarity,” he said.
The zeal over the cookbook extends even to those who don’t necessarily support Mr. Paul. Dane Smith, an employee of a private aircraft company that operates out of the airport hangar where Mr. Paul held one of his Friday events, said he was undecided, but had grabbed a cookbook just in case.
Some supporters suggested a recipe swap of sorts.
“I’m thinking of sending him some recipes,” Aiken resident and plumber David Holton said, while holding a “Ron Paul, Y’all,” sign at the Warrenville stop Friday. “Everybody likes my smoked turkey.
SAN FRANCISCO — Consider the presidential candidate who campaigns as a feisty contrarian, the “anti-politician” with “new vision” — a fiscal miser and free-thinker who talks about ending big-money politics and shaking up his party, while attracting hordes of young voters.
Sound like Texas Republican Ron Paul in 2012?
No, that was Democratic presidential candidate Jerry Brown — in 1992.
Brown, 73, the third-term governor of California, made three runs for the presidency as a political maverick — in 1976, 1980 and 1992. Paul, 76, currently on his third run for the White House, ran in 1988 as a Libertarian, and again in 2008 as a Republican.
While they have widely divergent political viewpoints, Paul and Brown have displayed uncanny similarities in messaging, youth appeal, grassroots fundraising and social media outreach in their rebellious presidential campaigns — in which both have challenged their own party’s establishment.
Brown’s 1992 call to “take back America from the confederacy of corruption, careerism and campaign consulting in Washington” echoes the same populist themes as Paul’s. And Brown’s proposed flat tax and ideas for simpler, leaner finances in government mirror some of the Texas Republican’s calls.
Indeed, Paul may be borrowing some of his playbook from Brown, who sold himself as the “un-candidate” in his 1992 presidential drive — and whose record may teach Paul a thing or two about “revolution” politics in this year’s GOP race.
“Jerry Brown was Ron Paul before Ron Paul was Ron Paul,” said Phil Trounstine, a veteran California political analyst who covered Brown’s 1992 presidential run and who now co-publishes Calbuzz.com, a politics website.
“Jerry was different from the political establishment — and that’s Ron Paul,” said Martin Nolan, who has covered presidential elections since 1968 whose work as a Boston Globe reporter was chronicled in Timothy Crouse’s seminal book on political journalism, “The Boys on the Bus.”
The past presidential ambitions of Brown, and the current drive by Paul, may also underscore the potential impacts of “movement” politics — personality-driven and sometimes unconventional campaigns that can attract passionate followers.
While former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney increasingly looks to be on his way to becoming the GOP nominee, observers say Paul is almost certain to continue to challenge the front-runner while leveraging his support, clout and issues - perhaps all the way to the GOP national convention in August.
With former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry splitting the social-conservative base, "it's hard to see how any of the alternatives (to Romney) survive, except maybe Ron Paul - who's like a Jerry Brown in 1992 because he has a solid base of support among young people," said Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha, associate professor of political science at the University of North Texas.
Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll in California, calls Paul's support among under-30 voters "the most striking thing" about his candidacy.
Among under-30 voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, Paul won nearly half the vote, hammering Romney in that demographic. DiCamillo attributes Paul's success with young voters in those states to his "libertarian positions on social issues and his anti-interventionist foreign policy."
"In a kind of odd way, Paul is the anti-establishment candidate," DiCamillo said. That's a label that traditionally has stuck to Democratic candidates, including Brown and Sens. Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy in 1968, and Gary Hart in his 1984 run against Walter Mondale.
Trounstine said Brown, like Paul, excited his base with an appeal to take big money out of politics.
Paul has used innovations like online "money bomb" appeals to reach grassroots donors - two decades after Brown adviser Joe Trippi launched an 800 phone number to attract small donors. And two decades before Paul's team effectively harnessed social media, Trippi signed Brown up for the first-ever online political chat with his followers - in 1992.
"Jerry Brown was plugged in to new networks, and Paul has done the same thing," said Nolan, a San Francisco resident who covered Brown's 1976 and 1980 presidential bids.
Right until the end of his last run, Brown sharply criticized the man who would be his party's nominee - Bill Clinton. Paul has not shrunk from criticizing Romney, leading to speculation he may take his campaign all the way to the GOP convention.
Rep. Ron Paul says he’s in it to win it and the campaign boasts that it has a comprehensive strategy in place to ensure that happens.
But behind the scenes Campaign Manager Jesse Benton admits to ABC News that the team is plotting a back up strategy in case the congressman doesn’t pull in enough delegates to become the nominee.
If the campaign comes up short at the convention, Benton says the plan is to use all the delegates awarded to Paul as a bargaining chip to force the Republican Party to stick to its limited government platform.
Benton says this could include auditing the Federal Reserve and winding back several parts of the Patriot Act, including roving wire taps which he says were originally written with the intent of expiring.
“I think it would be wise for the Republican Party to allow them to sun set next time they come up for authorization,” said Benton, adding a good portion of the American people are with that.
According to his campaign chairman, Jesse Benton, Paul has a coordinator in Puerto Rico. The campaign has a “Hispanic for Ron Paul” team that prominently features a Puerto Rican business-leader. A non-affiliated group, Puerto Rico for Ron Paul, has also been disseminating caucus-related information.
That the Texas Republican is investing any resources at all in Puerto Rico may strike some as wasteful. Few political observers take Paul seriously as a potential nominee, even after he scored a second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. Primaries, after all, are won through momentum: a few early victories beget others, which, in turn, beget more donors, endorsements, excitement, and ultimately more victories.
The Paul campaign does not subscribe to that theory.
“Ours is a delegate strategy,” said Benton. “We want to win the 1,100 delegates. If [former Massachusetts Gov.]Mitt Romney has secured 1,150 delegates, then it is game over. But we are going to contest that until the very end, and again we have a goal. We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think we can win 1,150 delegates.”
Who is Paul looking to for inspiration? It might surprise you: President Obama’s primary run. Here’s Stein:
It’s the Money Ball of campaign strategies and it’s rooted in, of all places, Obama’s 2008 campaign.
“You try to look at what models have worked in the past and Obama’s model worked,” said Benton. “Now we have different ideas about where we would like to take the country, but he ran a brilliant campaign. He unleashed his grassroots to work hard, get involved in their communities, and really fight for some principles and that’s what we are trying to do too.”
“Let’s say they clean up in the caucus states,” the source said. “Let’s say they control 20 votes out of 100 in those committees, then they can force votes on those issues. They can make a motion on the floor to amend the agenda, to amend the platform … They could force certain issues to be voted on. They could force the convention to consider certain questions and force the human beings on the committees to address certain things. How about a more robust version of the ‘audit the Fed’ platform? All of a sudden you will get recorded votes on those issues.
Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul tonight received the endorsement of South Carolina state Sen. Tom Davis, a state lawmaker popular with tea party activists.
Speaking at a rally in Myrtle Beach, Davis praised Paul’s “drastic and radical” efforts to reign in government spending.
“There is only one candidate that is talking about this problem to the degree, at the scale, and with the scope that it needs to be talked about,” Davis said. “You can’t nibble around the edges anymore.”
Davis blamed lobbyists and loopholes for “rotting out our republic to the core.”
“That’s what’s happening in South Carolina and that’s what’s happening to our nation,” he said.
The Paul campaign describes the announcement as “consequential” and “game-changing,” adding in a statement that it “virtually assures” that Paul will get the support of fiscal conservatives in the “First in the South” primary.
Dr. Paul is somebody that I’ve watched for the past 26 years and I’ve always admired the principled stands he’s taken in Congress,” Davis told the overflowing crowd at the rally here Sunday that was Paul’s only stop of the day.
Paul, who gave this typical stump speech focused on economics and personal liberty, told the cheering crowd he had heard Davis was a “very popular senator, and now I believe that.”
“I really appreciate his vote of confidence in giving me this wonderful endorsement,” Paul said.
After the rally, Paul said he felt confident Davis’s endorsement would live up to the “game-changing” billing in a state where his campaign says it’s stepped up efforts following Paul’s strong second place finish in New Hampshire last week.
“He has a lot of influence,” Paul said. “So I do think it’s going to be a very significant event, because he’s been identified with the type of ideas I’ve talked about. He talked about Austrian economics, he was recently elected as a tea party person, and I think that’s exactly the kind of person that will get the attention. I think he’s going to be a big help to us.”
Paul’s been less of a factor in the South Carolina race than he was in Iowa and New Hampshire, but he told the crowd Sunday that his expectations for the state were rising.
“I don’t know if you noticed, you probably have, but the campaign’s been going pretty well,” he said during the rally. “It did well in Iowa, it did well in New Hampshire, and we’re going to do well next Saturday, right? And when we do well, we will send a powerful message.
In February 2007, Ron Paul and Carolyn Paul celebrated 50 years of marriage with their large family. Here is information on how Ron and Carol met, their wedding, their children, and more.
Ronald Ernest Paul: August 20, 1935 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Carolyn Wells: February 29, 1936. Her hometown is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Carol and Ron Paul met in high school. In 1952, they had their first date when Carol asked Ron to be her escort to her 16th birthday party which was a Sadie Hawkins-type of party.
Ron proposed marriage to Carol in the summer of 1956 while they were having a picnic in a park.
During Ron Paul's senior year, he and Carol were married on February 1, 1957 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania at Dormont Presbyterian Church. They had about 300 guests at their evening wedding.
The wedding reception was held at The Dormont New Century Club. They had a four-tiered traditional style wedding cake.
Their first dance as a married couple was to Doris Day's "When I Fall in Love." Ron was 21 years old and Carol was 20 years old.
Carol: "We married in an all white wedding 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."
Source: "The American Dream -- Through the Eyes of Mrs. Ron Paul.". RonPaulforCongress.com. 3-16-07.
"Carol wore a white Chantilly lace gown with a bouffant tulle skirt and a silk illusion veil attached to a half hat. Ron wore a black tux and a white tie ... Carol held a cascade of white flowers; and Ron donned a white carnation boutonniere."
Source: BridesDecide.com
Carol and Ron Paul spent their honeymoon in Durham, North Carolina.
Children:
Carolyn and Ron have five children, eighteen grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Ronald Paul Jr: Married to Peggy. They have three daughters.
Lori Paul Pyeatt: Married to Tom Pyeatt.
Randall "Rand" Paul: Rand is an ophthalmologist and U.S. Senator in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He is married to Kelley. They have three sons.
Robert Paul: Robert is family practice physician. He is married to Monica. They have two children.
Joy Paul-LeBlanc: Joy is an obstetrician and gynecologist. She is married to Andy. They have five children.
More about Ron and Carol's family
Lake Jackson, Texas. In April 2011, Catalina Camia of USA Today reported that Carol and Ron put their home on the market since they built another home. "Ron Paul sells his Texas house through Facebook."
Occupations:
Ron: Congressman, obstetrician and gynecologist, author, flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s.
Carol: Through their years together, Carol has worked as a secretary, dance instructor, and other jobs to help the family finances.
Tomas Alex Tizon: "The couple talks on the phone two to three times a day. She makes him chocolate chip cookies to take on the road. "I worry for him," she says. "He gets very tired."
Source: "Paul, Gravel: They're last but not least." LaTimes.com. 7-25-07.
Carol Paul about what she doesn't like about being on the campaign trail: "Living out of a suitcase without enough hours to sleep."
Source: "Carol Paul -- Running Together." Time.com. 9/2007.
Tags: Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul, born August 20, 1935 is an American medical doctor, author, Republican U.S. Congressman of the House of Representatives and candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination. Paul is currently the U.S. Congressman for the 14th congressional district of Texas, which comprises the area south and southwest of the Greater Houston region, including Galveston. Paul serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Joint Economic Committee, and the House Committee on Financial Services, and is Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology, where he has been an outspoken critic of current American foreign and monetary policy.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul is a graduate of Gettysburg College and the Duke University School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree. Paul served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force from 1963 until 1968, during the Vietnam War. He worked as an obstetrician and gynecologist during the 1960s and 1970s, delivering more than 4,000 babies, before entering politics during 1976.
Paul is the initiator of the advocacy group Campaign for Liberty and his ideas have been expressed in numerous published articles and books, including Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom (2011), End The Fed (2009), The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008), Pillars of Prosperity (2008), A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship (2007), and The Case for Gold (1982). According to University of Georgia political scientist Keith Poole, Paul had the most conservative voting record of any member of Congress since 1937. His son Rand Paul was elected to the United States Senate for Kentucky in 2010, making the elder Paul the first Representative in history to serve concurrently with a child of his in the Senate.
Paul has been termed the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party philosophy. He has become well-known for his libertarian ideas for many political issues, often differing from both Republican and Democratic Party directors. Paul has campaigned for President of the United States twice before, first during 1988 as the nominee of the Libertarian Party and again during 2008 as a candidate for the Republican nomination. On May 13, 2011, he announced formally that he would campaign again during 2012 for the Republican presidential nomination. On July 12, 2011, Paul announced that he would not seek another term in Congress in order to concentrate on his presidential bid.
Paul was born in Pittsburgh, the son of Howard Caspar Paul and Margaret (née Dumont) Paul. His paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Germany, and his mother was of German and Irish ancestry. As a junior at suburban Dormont High School, he was the 220-yard dash state champion. He received a B.S. degree in biology at Gettysburg College during 1957. He was a member of the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha. After earning a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Duke University School of Medicine during 1961, Paul relocated with his wife to Michigan, where he completed his medical internship at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He then served as a flight surgeon of the United States Air Force from 1963 to 1965 and then of the United States Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968.
While still a medical resident during the 1960s, Paul was influenced by Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, which caused him to read many publications by Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand. He came to know economists Hans Sennholz and Murray Rothbard well, and credits to them his interest in the study of economics. He came to believe that what the Austrian school economists wrote was becoming true on August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon "closed the gold window" by implementing the U.S. dollar's complete departure from the gold standard.That same day, the young physician decided to enter politics, saying later, "After that day, all money would be political money rather than money of real value. I was astounded.
Inspired by his belief that the monetary crisis of the 1970s was predicted by the Austrian School and caused by excessive government spending on the Vietnam War and welfare, Paul became a delegate to the Texas Republican convention and a Republican candidate for the United States Congress. During 1974, incumbent Robert R. Casey defeated him for the 22nd district. When President Gerald Ford appointed Casey to direct the Federal Maritime Commission, Paul won an April 1976 special election to the vacant office. Paul lost some months later in the general election, to Democrat Robert Gammage, by fewer than 300 votes (0.2%), but defeated Gammage in a 1978 rematch, and was reelected during 1980 and 1982.
Paul proposed term-limit legislation multiple times, at first during the 1970s in the House of Representatives where he also declined to attend junkets or register for a Congressional pension while serving four terms. His chief of staff (1978–1982) was Lew Rockwell. During 1980, when a majority of Republicans favored President Jimmy Carter's proposal to reinstate draft registration, Paul argued that their views were inconsistent, stating they were more interested in registering their children than they were their guns. He also proposed legislation to decrease Congressional pay by the rate of inflation; he was a regular participant of the annual Congressional Baseball Game; and he continued to deliver babies on Mondays and Saturdays during his entire 22nd district career.
During his first term, Paul initiated a "think tank", the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE). Also during 1976, the foundation began publication of the first monthly newsletter associated with Paul, Dr. Ron Paul's Freedom Report (or Special Report). It also publishes radio advertisements, monographs, books, and (since 1997) a new series of the monthly newsletter, Ron Paul's Freedom Report, which promote the principles of limited government.
Paul authors more bills than the average representative, such as those that impose term limits, or abolish the income tax[84] or the Federal Reserve; many do not escape committee review. He has written successful legislation to prevent eminent domain seizure of a church in New York, and a bill transferring ownership of the Lake Texana dam project from the federal government to Texas. By amending other legislation, he has helped prohibit funding for national identification numbers, funding for federal teacher certification,International Criminal Court jurisdiction over the U.S. military, American participation with any U.N. global tax, and surveillance of peaceful First Amendment activities by citizens.
During March 2001, Paul introduced a bill to repeal the 1973 War Powers Resolution (WPR) and reinstate the process of formal declaration of war by Congress. Later during 2001, Paul voted to authorize the president, pursuant to WPR, to respond to those responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks. He also introduced "Sunlight Rule" legislation, which requires lawmakers to take enough time to read bills before voting on them, after the Patriot Act was passed within 24 hours of its introduction. Paul was one of six Republicans to vote against the Iraq War Resolution, and (with Oregon representative Peter DeFazio) sponsored a resolution to repeal the war authorization during February 2003. Paul's speech, 35 "Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq", was translated and published in German, French, Russian, Italian, and Swiss periodicals before the Iraq War began.
Beginning during 2010 there was speculation among pundits and journalists regarding the prospect of Paul campaigning for president again during 2012. When Paul's wife, Carol, was asked if he would campaign during 2012 her response was "If you would ask him now he would probably say 'no', but he did say... things are happening so quickly and fast in our country, if we're at a crisis period and they need someone... with the knowledge he has... then he would do it.
Paul won several early straw polls and began raising funds for an exploratory committee. In mid-April, 2011, Paul announced the formation of a "testing-the-waters" account, and stated that he will make a decision on whether to enter the campaign officially no later than May.In late April, he formed an official exploratory committee to campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. He participated with the first Republican presidential debate on May 5, 2011. and on May 13, 2011, Paul formally announced his candidacy in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America.
Paul has been described as conservative, Constitutionalist, and libertarian. He has been nicknamed "Dr. No", representing both his medical degree and his insistence that he will "never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution", and "Mr. Republican". One scoring method published in the American Journal of Political Science found Paul the most conservative of all 3,320 members of Congress from 1937 to 2002. Paul's foreign policy of nonintervention made him the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate to have voted against the Iraq War Resolution during 2002. He advocates withdrawal from the United Nations, and from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for reasons of maintaining strong national sovereignty. He endorses free trade, rejecting membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization as "managed trade". He endorses increased border security and opposes welfare for illegal aliens, birthright citizenship and amnesty; he voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006. He voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks, but suggested war alternatives such as authorizing the president to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal targeting specific terrorists. An opponent of the Iraq War and potential war with Iran, he has also criticized neoconservatism and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, arguing that both inadvertently cause terrorist reprisals against Americans. Paul has stated that "Israel is our close friend" and that it is not the place of the United States to "dictate how Israel runs her affairs".
He opposes the Patriot Act, federal use of torture, presidential autonomy, a national identification card, warrantless domestic surveillance, and the draft. Citing the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, Paul advocates states' rights to decide how to regulate social matters not cited directly by the Constitution. Paul terms himself "strongly pro-life", "an unshakable foe of abortion", and believes regulation or ban on medical decisions about maternal or fetal health is "best handled at the state level". He says his years as an obstetrician led him to believe life begins at conception; his abortion-related legislation, like the Sanctity of Life Act, is intended to negate Roe v. Wade and to get "the federal government completely out of the business of regulating state matters. Paul also believes that the notion of the separation of church and state is currently misused by the court system: "In case after case, the Supreme Court has used the infamous 'separation of church and state' metaphor to uphold court decisions that allow the federal government to intrude upon and deprive citizens of their religious liberty.
He opposes federal regulation of the death penalty (although he opposes capital punishment), of education,and of marriage, and endorses revising the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to concern mainly disruptive sexual behavior (whether heterosexual or homosexual). As a free-market environmentalist, he asserts private property rights in relation to environmental protection and pollution prevention.He also opposes the federal War on Drugs, and believes the states should decide whether to regulate or deregulate drugs such as medical marijuana. Paul pushes to eliminate federal involvement with and management of health care, which he argues would allow prices to decrease due to the fundamental dynamics of a free market. He is an outspoken proponent for increased ballot access for 3rd party candidates and numerous election law reforms which he believes would allow more voter control. Referring to the federal government, Ron Paul has also stated that “The government shouldn't be in the medical business." He is also opposed to federal government influenza inoculation programs.
Paul was critical of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that it was unconstitutional and did not improve race relations. He once remarked: "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 not only violated the Constitution and reduced individual liberty; it also failed to achieve its stated goals of promoting racial harmony and a color-blind society".
On April 15, 2011, Paul was one of four Republican members of congress to vote against "The Path to Prosperity.
Tag: Carol Paul
