OFFICIAL : Meet The Press thread : Sunday Morning!!

[MsDoodahs]

I've watched meet the press off an on for the last 3 years, and before that every week for 4 years solid. I have NEVER seen an interview that even approached the outright attack level of this one. This was a practical catalog of every obscure, discredited, smear that has been thrown against the wall hoping to stick to Dr. Paul all crammed into one interview.

Exactly. And STILL Dr. Paul and this movement roll forward.

Russert. lol...

 

[Anti Federalist]

http://ronpaulgraphs.com/yesterday_vs_today_donors_line.html

Hoo Hah!!!

Everybody take a look at THAT.

THERE is your indication of how the man did.

A big spike in donor numbers at the very minute his appearance is done.

 

[OptionsTrader]

Dr. Paul is the ONLY one that is courageous enough to say that we are approaching fascism is this country.

It is a scary thing that the average voter will not want to hear, but it doesn't make it incorrect just because it is unpleasant to hear. Much like it is not pleasant to hear that our foreign policy instigates suicide terrorism.

Americans do not like to exercise nor eat healthy foods, and we are going to be expecting them to go on a world dominance diet and start working hard and saving.

The 6 million dollar question is whether voters are capable of being honest with themselves, and intelligent enough to realize the country needs to be repaired, and that they need to take some foul tasting medicine and admit they have enabled the government via apathy.

 

[FreeTraveler]

Who are all these people that think the Department of Education for government schools for indoctrination is doing a good job? It offends people the someone wants to end the DOE which has put us in the mess we are in today. These mom's need to have someone take them by some of our public schools.

Yeah, and have them take a look at this video. It's aimed at moms who grew up in the 60's, since the song is by Pete Seeger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXAxROb626o

 

[newrealization]

I thought he did well. Meet the Press always comes with the hard questions and he held up fairly well. Sometimes I just want to be sitting next to him so I can say what everyone is thinking since he seems to miss that on occasion (I.E. I was saddened by the attacks of September 11 AND THEN concerned about liberty, etc.) but all in all well done.

 

[slantedview]

Russert:

"so you think there is a moral equivalency between the west and islamic fascism".

Yea, I was taken aback when I heard that. Talk about straining for something..

 

[wfd40]

Im watching MTP right now and Ron is not on. What gives?

he starts out slow.. wait for the precise moment when the color returns to his face..

Its basically gravy after that

 

[RobotJaxxon]

The problem I think many of you have is that this is the first time you've ever watched Meet the Press. ... The goal of Meet the Press isn't to "win". The goal is to simply walk away with less of a beating than other candidates you're against will take.

That made me laugh, I'm feeling better now. Thanks!

I swear, the Ron Paul camp has to be THE MOST FUN and best spirited place to be in the campaign!

 

[inibo]

I haven't seen the interview yet so I can't speak to the specifics, but there are many folks here who seem to wear rose-colored glasses. It's as if the see him as some sort of living saint and that if Ron Paul says it or does it it is by definition perfection. He is just a man, a great man, but a man nonetheless.

Before you ask me who's side I'm on, I started blogging Ron Paul before many people here ever heard of him:

http://isilion.blogsome.com/2005/07/24/i-never-thought-this-whould-happen/
http://isilion.blogsome.com/2005/07/27/im-ready-to-move-to-texas/

I changed my voter registration from unaffiliated to Republican and mailed a check for $100.00 the day I read this:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/local/stories/011207dntswpaul.2114595.html

There are lots of people here who need to get real. Ron Paul is the greatest US statesman in 100 years, but sometimes even they greatest takes a hit. What counts in the long run is how well he takes it and how quickly he can shake it off and get back into the fight.

I'm confident he's going to go the distance, but he's going to take some hard shots along the way. To think otherwise is to only set yourself up for disappointment.

OK, I finally saw the interview. It don't take back anything I said, but Ron Paul did not take a hit today, he gave one.

 

[fj45lvr]

Sadly, my assessment kinda matches this one, and I don't see where all the rosey assessments are coming from. (Although admittedly, I'm not a regular viewer of this show).

First half, Russert was trying to pick apart RP's desire to end the income tax. Ron got away with one though when he said we could save 100s of billions by changing our foreign policy, then using that money to pay for Social Security. If Russert was on his game, he would have asked "So, if you use the money saved for Social Security, how do you eliminate the income tax?". Maybe Russert pulled a punch there.

The second half Russert tried to attack Ron Paul the man. Not a big deal to me, because I don't expect to have perfection in my president (nor a perfect Republican), but the focus on him instead of the message was probably negative for people who don't know him. There are probably plenty of quotes from his Libertarian run that might not sound good out of context.

I think there were multiple instances of RP getting twisted around by Russert, and RP's responses were bad to the point that I could see them eventually come back to haunt him.

Ugh. I feel like I've been punched hard in the gut.

I would love to see Russert tear apart the liberal candidates!!! They provide so much more easy prey than RON (where Russert has to digg up stuff from 1988).

I was surprised he didn't throw back at him the comment on saved money from foreign policy being used for BOTH the social security maintenance and the elimination of the Income tax (besides the fact that if young people do "opt out" they leave a BIGGER hole to have to "patch")

Bottom line is that Ron is the SOLE, SINGLE, ONLY candidate that is willing to "pull the plug" on GOVERNMENT! !!!

Thank-God someone has the BALLS to dismantle the "beast"....It surprises me that there are not more advocates to see it DISMANTLED within the political media pundits as the "HANDWRITING IS ON THE WALL"----either it gets dismantled or it will simply implode in CHAOS. It makes too much sense to protect the public by surgically extracting portions than to see it become a twisted jumble of hot metal and flames...

RON ended this thing (where TIM gave NO leeway to dissertate) in a BLAZE OF GLORY........Russert and America cannot deny we have transformed into the FASCIST STATE of AMERICA (by its supreme rulers as RON layed out to see)....You can bet your bottom dollar the "pundits" won't touch that bit of TRUTH with a 10 foot pole!!!

How many other candidates are pointing out the FASCISM being fed and bred in D.C.?????

 

[TooConservative]

Something no one has mentioned is just how many times Russert tried to quote or tried to use RP's run for the Libertarian Party in 1988.

A lot of people might come away thinking, "He's really a Libertarian." And Ron Paul deflected that well, too, pointing out that, except for that one year, he's always been a Republican. Also, he described a difference he had with the L Party and referred to them as "the Libertarians". He also sometimes refers to Republicans as "the Republicans" and similar for Democrats.

He is a pretty independent politician. That can work well. The GOP is out of ideas and making its base mad at all we've given up during the Bush years. Ron Paul is a fresh new direction on so many policy issues. And he has a very principled record.

 

[tmg19103]

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272617853.shtml

The attack has started.

Nation Ledger is neocon swill that has been attacking RP worse than any news outlet for months. Meaningless.

 

[joelfarm]

No, Ron Pau may not be a slick, polished media pretty-boy, with memorized answers to ALL questions asked. For as long as he has been in D.C., if a quote from a fired ex-employee is all Russert can throw on him, Ron is OK by me! Do any other candidates have disgruntled ex-workers willing to talk bad about them? Like shaking leaves from a tree!!

 

[DealzOnWheelz]

someone needs to photoshop Ron on muhammed ali and russert on spinks

 

[GunnyFreedom]

No, his job is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. His job does not change when in committee, or when being doctored with unconstitutional appropriations.



Omnibus budget and appropriations bills are ALWAYS passed, so his "no" vote is a legislative sleight-of-hand.



No, it makes him look like a slick politician. It's one of very few indefensible things he's done in Congress.

You really do need to see this link:

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst061807.htm

and understand that earmarking does not change the levels of money being spent. A bill with no earmarks costs the US taxpayer the exact same amount as a bill with 10,000 earmarks.

RP fought to force congress to make all earmarks public, but specifically *not* to do away with earmarks. RP says that if you remove earmarking altogether, it will place spending decisions in the hands of faceless bureaucrats, and take them out of the hands of Congress.

If you read the above link, you will see that RP fought to make earmarks public, keep them, and to reduce original budget allocations.

I believe his stance on earmarking is very principled, and I know the artcle at the above link opened my eyes quite a bit on the issue.

 

[wfd40]

Dr. Paul is the ONLY one that is courageous enough to say that we are approaching fascism is this country.

It is a scary thing that the average voter will not want to hear, but it doesn't make it incorrect just because it is unpleasant to hear. Much like it is not pleasant to hear that our foreign policy instigates suicide terrorism.

Americans do not like to exercise nor eat healthy foods, and we are going to be expecting them to go on a world dominance diet and start working hard and saving.

The 6 million dollar question is whether voters are capable of being honest with themselves, and intelligent enough to realize the country needs to be repaired, and that they need to take some foul tasting medicine and admit they have enabled the government via apathy.

Great post OP... I was sitting with half a dozen people totally unfamiliar with Dr. Paul's platform and these issues, above all others seemed to resonate most. Go figure. Americans actually value their personal liberties;

 

[inibo]

True or False, guys (I didn't see it):
"Supporters of the US Congressman from Texas may believe he had a good appearance and most of the time any mainstream airtime for a dark horse candidate like Paul would be welcomed, but this was a disaster. Those that have Meet the Press on in the background on the television as they are getting the family ready for Church would have been appalled at the way his positions were described by Russert.

And Ron didn't help matters at all. He was on the defensive from the start of the interview and never rebounded. As I feared, Paul was unprepared and looked foolish as Russert peppered him with old quotes and positions. The interview was fair and this is just what I expected from the NBC giant. It was actually rather sad to see him manhandled this way but you can easily score this one Russert 1 Paul 0. "

False.

 

[thatnerdyguy]

The problem I think many of you have is that this is the first time you've ever watched Meet the Press. Remember that what YOU think, being a Ron Paul supporter already, is irrelevant. What does matter is what all of the REGULAR viewers of Meet the Press thought. The reason this is key is because the normal viewers know EXACTLY what this show is about.....which is GRILLING the candidates.

Right, Russerts job is to "nail" (to steal a Colbert-ism) his guests. He tried and tried to nail Dr. Paul, but all he got was sore fingers from missing so many, many times.

The closest he might have come was the earmarks thing. But Dr. Paul made *perfect* sense. The government took his districts money, why SHOULDN'T he try to get it back, rather than letting some OTHER people take it. You should try to change the system, but you should also work within the confines of the current system to not dis-enfranchise the people you represent!

 

[slamhead]

I tell you, I would like to see any other candidate withstand such questioning as Ron Paul did today on Russert's show. I don't think I have ever seen such an interview of a presidential candidate. They went back with a fine toothed comb into his past and tried to find anything they could. This is all they could find...wow. But watch, now the other candidates will start parroting Russert's "findings".

Great job Ron you did well in defending yourself against the attacks.

 

[MsDoodahs]

P.S did you catch at the End TIM say you were on CNN talking about the Sinclair Lewis remark? Tim it was FOX moron!

I caught that...lol...