My comment on Digg... It took me too long to formulate to languish in a buried Digg article. Besides, you guys will appreciate it more here anyway.
Note it was a reply to this comment...
I'm sorry, but he looked like a dope tonight.
If Ron Paul wants a chance to win, he better get a hearing aid.
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I agree, the FOX moderator made him look foolish tonight in that one exchange. Hopefully the rest of his message was not lost in that one moment.
Really, I doubt it was. A few weeks ago I talked to my parents about Ron for the first time. My mother shared that she supported Guliani because of his "strong performance during 9/11" and electability. My father, who is an ordained minister, supported Huckabee, for obvious (though not entirely justified in my mind) reasons. Every time I see them now they ask more about Ron, how he is doing in the polls, his fund-raising, his constitutionalist views. I watched the YouTube/CNN debate with them as well as the hour long Glenn Beck interview. While watching these with them I deliberately played devil's advocate, not outright praising Ron, pointing out positions of his that might be considered pie-in-the-sky to many in todays reality, but in theory - when looking at them on paper - are clearly a better way of doing things. I point out that despite some of Ron's "crazier" ideas, he is the only candidate with a %100 consistent voting record, and if you really listen to the candidates and then watch him, you instantly realize that he is the only candidate that refuses to pander for votes. I don't think he could pander even if he wanted to. i don't think he even knows how.
Boy how times change. Two states have voted now, both in which Guliani has been trounced by Dr. Paul (so much for electability). Huckabee got the religious vote but came nowhere near winning in Iowa. It's looking more and more like Romney or McCain will get the nom and I doubt either of those can beat whomever the Democrats put up. My father knows this, and so does my mother. I can see it in both of their faces.
They so want to believe, and I so want them to as well. So I trudge on, answering their questions as best I can, resisting from sending smearish YouTube videos of their candidates of choice. A few weeks from now we will all be at the polls (we live in FL) and I'll be voting for Paul, even though I know he will not win the state and probably won't even do well enough for a single delegate.
But at least I'll have voted for the guy who I actually believe says what he means and does what he says, even if he doesn't do in the slickest way with the perfectly primed haircut. I'm hoping my parents vote with the same mindset, no matter who they vote for.
