How concerned are you about the allegations of racism?

[AlienLanes82]

Right, so please show me one time RP has ever voted for some racist political program. He doesn't support any racist political positions.

Serial killer = racist????? huh?

The point is that character, at some point, matters. If his character is racist, at some point, it ceases to matter that he doesn't support racist political positions.

The example of a serial killer is only meant to show that character matters at some level, and merely having great libertarian ideas is not enough to trump character. In no way am I suggesting that killing and racism are morally equivalent or in any way similar.

It merely shows that you cannot dismiss accusations of racism by saying "his political positions aren't racist", or, as someone said earlier, "so what if he's racist?"

I'm going to stop talking about this now because it only makes me depressed.

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

The example of a serial killer is only meant to show that character matters at some level, and merely having great libertarian ideas is not enough to trump character.

It would be much easier to liken the McCain personality to a serial killer. I think talking about serial killers in relation to politicians is a pretty bad can of worms to open, RP or not. Just sayin'

 

[AlienLanes82]

It would be much easier to liken the McCain personality to a serial killer. I think talking about serial killers in relation to politicians is a pretty bad can of worms to open, RP or not. Just sayin'

Sorry. I was trying to make an analogy but I guess it was a poor one.

Face it, if we had copies of the Mike Huckabee Report with this stuff in it, we would treat it like a legitimate story, and shout it from the rooftops.

If that whole thing about 2 staffers being fired is true, the campaign should have named names and explained that, not given that pathetic press release.

Dammit, I'm done.

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

Face it, if we had copies of the Mike Huckabee Report with this stuff in it, we would treat it like a legitimate story, and shout it from the rooftops.

So, the truth no longer matters? Did it matter to you before? That's why I could never support Huckabee, actually.

 

[Ricochet]

But Why Should We Tust Kirchick's Gut Instinct? Indeed, why should anyone trust him at all ever again? As I mentioned in my post last night, when I asked Kirchick weeks ago whether he actually thought Paul was a homophobe, he responded (by email):

I don’t think Ron Paul is a homophobe; I’m just cynical and enjoy getting supporters of political candidates riled up. If you were a Giuliani guy I’d have called him a fascist.

source: http://gays-for-ron.blogspot.com/2008/01/kirchicking-of-ron-paul.html

 

[stepupnj]

It certainly gave me pause. I did a little reserach and Ron did in fact publish these newsletters with questionable content over the years. I really don't believe that he is a racist, but he must take responsibility for the content of these letters, even if he did not personally write some of the objectionable content.

I believe that this did have a significant impact in the NH primary. I also still believe that the message is SO critically important and needs to be continued. I hope the campaign can live on for a while and get the people thinking about an immmoral war and a 9 trillion dollar debt. Its so much more important than being concerned if I can afford to buy that flat screen TV at Walmart.

 

[DaronWestbrooke]

It certainly gave me pause. I did a little reserach and Ron did in fact publish these newsletters with questionable content over the years. I really don't believe that he is a racist, but he must take responsibility for the content of these letters, even if he did not personally write some of the objectionable content.

We are running with the story the signatures on them are fake. Let's stick with that and not confuse it by putting out contradicting information.

 

[RM918]

Christ, that poll is pathetic. Paul doesn't have a racist bone in his body and these things have been debunked over and over again. The only thing that depresses me about them is that so many have bought into Kirchek's horseshit. I'm not coming to this forum anymore, and I'm deleting my account if I can. This place is just depressing.

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

We are running with the story the signatures on them are fake. Let's stick with that and not confuse it by putting out contradicting information.

No, we aren't running with any story about anything, and nobody here has been elected as some sort of storyteller. Let it get hashed out with the time and attention it deserves. I want to run with the real "story." Others do too. We have a lot of smart people here, and things will look more clear in another day or so. There's no story to run with, because there's no evidence to support any story to run with.

 

[RoyalTenenbaum]

I'm not concerned in the sense that it changes my opinion of Ron Paul. I don't think he holds the beliefs set forth in those Newsletters.

That being said, I fear these Newsletters will prevent any breakout to the upside among the general electorate. They will probably limit Paul's support to those who already like him, or a few others who get interested in the issues he discusses. I mean, think of how much traction candidates get with their negative ads when it involves a kind of bland issue like taxes, or campaign finance reform. If Paul ever started to make his move, the ads would start to roll featuing a Newsletter Called "The Ron Paul Newsletter" or whatever, with his signature, and then these views expressed. Think of how use of the word "macaca" totally sunk George Allen. That provided a much vaguer inference of racism than what we've got here.

It's upsetting because this has gotta be killing Paul personally. This trouble results from the fact that he lent his name to something he thought might advance the cause of liberty, and the loonie toons who did the writing betrayed that generosity. The trust he put in the writers probably is more the result of his belief in the goodness of people - think of his firm belief that we can influence the world for the better by good example. Unfortunately, whoever was writing those things used Pauls popularity and name, generously given, to spread their own wackjob views. Paul feels a great amount of responsibility for this movement, and I'm sure this really bothers him.

I know that one of the wonderful effects of the Ron Paul Revolution is a large number of people looking to get politically involved and run for office. Let this be a lesson to us all to exercise diligence in our affairs and prudence in our words and associations.