Ron Paul Tops McCain in Cash on Hand

[de Toke-ville]

Since there's a lot of peeps here that are in the Ron Paul camp, thought you might enjoy this. Dr. P is gonna be on "This Week" on ABC on Sunday morning--a huge PR get even when handicapped for it being a holiday, summer week.

It's all about the Benjamins...


http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/07/ron-paul-tops-m.html

"Ron Paul Tops McCain in Cash on Hand

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Reports: Though often regarded as a longshot candidate for president, Republican Ron Paul tells ABC News that he has an impressive $2.4 million in cash on hand after raising an equal amount during the second quarter, putting him ahead of one-time Republican frontrunner John McCain, who reported this week he has only $2 million in the bank.

In an exclusive interview taped Friday and airing Sunday on "This Week," Paul said his campaign is on a better trajectory than McCain's.

"I think some of the candidates are on the down-slope, and we're on the up-slope," said Paul.

Paul's cash on hand puts him in third place in the Republican field in that important metric, although he is well behind leader Rudy Giuliani, who has $18 million in the bank, and Mitt Romney, with $12 million.

Paul, who polls show with support in the low single digits, said his surprisingly strong fundraising is the best measure of his support.

"I think people have underestimated the number of people in this country who are interested in a freedom message," says the Republican congressman from Texas, who has strong libertarian leanings.

Click HERE to watch a clip from the interview.

To watch the full interview, tune in to "This Week" on Sunday (check local listings).

 

[BrainBoy]

I keep hoping. I keep hoping.

 

[treble]

yeah ... any news on Ron Paul is good news. It shows he's really getting his foot in the door of mainstream. Thats a surprisingly good level of campaign funds.

spread the word, buy the bumper stickers and yard signs and say to the man or lady you find yourself sitting next to "hey have you heard of this Ron Paul guy?"

ooooh its almost like power to the people all over again

treb

 

[HCSmyth]

I think he might have shot sooner or later. Plus, I believe he is a free thinker and seems pragmatic enough for me. He also may have enough charisma to overcome petty political games, which is very important for a freethinking politician!

 

[Aestivus]

I'm pretty happy to say I helped him get there

 

[Bob Labla]

I really like him, and love his ideas but I think the idea of dissolving so many elements of the government is gonna scare away the average joe who wouldnt take the time to look into how we may get along better or more efficiently without it.

 

[The Uncola]

I saw an overpass on the Boulder/Denver Highway (US36) decorated with a pro Ron Paul message as I was heading up into the mountains the other day.

McCain is down the drain!! Saying he is bigger than Mr. Stroll through Baghdad is a day at the beach is not a very strong argument. McCain died of kissing Bush's Ass disease.
21 Rethuglican Senators are about to go down in '08- There are only 12 Democrats up for re-election at the same time. Let those 21 also die of Kissing Bush's Ass disease.

 

[Guest]

Even better IMO,Bill Richardson just passed up bumber sticker boy!I guess good hair goes nowhere when you're message is quite retarded...

 

[Pixelante]

I support a lot of Ron Paul's viewpoints and campaign strategies to target young people disillusioned with the system, but I personally have no intention of voting for him. He comes off to me as just another rich-guy-turned-politician (in his case, a OB/GYN) trying to slide past talking about actual issues, and he does so by targeting people my age (the 18-30 crowd) who really don't understand exactly what the full scope of his political beliefs are, but think they do.

Don't get me wrong, he does advocate a lot of positive changes. Chief amongst them is ending the war and fixing all the corruption in the Justice Department and Executive. But more relevant to this forum, he also advocates the legalization/decriminalization of cannabis (in states that pass laws permitting it)!

But at the same time, a lot of the things he wants to do in this country are either outright impossible or outright stupid. Like most Libertarians [pretending to be Republicans because he's from Texas and it's the only way he can get elected], he places too much faith in private businesses to do the right thing. Milton Friedman, the founder of Libertarianism, is famously noted for saying that the only responsibility a company holds is to its shareholders (assuming it's publicly held -- if it isn't, that responsibility extends no farther than the biggest paychecks possible for the private owners).

Do you really want every aspect of your life to be managed or controlled by people who not only don't care about you, but also want to wring every penny possible from you? That's essentially what he advocates. Don't forget that he's a Libertarian, and that means he wants to outsource most local, state, and national government functions to private businesses who have no interest other than making as much money as they can.

He's also particularly good at dodging questions surrounding these issues. I've seen him on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Attack of the Show, and on all them he has been extremely talented in managing not to say he wants to abolish a litany of government-run programs that we need to hold this nation together.

Edit: Here's a really good analogy to think more clearly about what I'm trying to convey. If cannabis became legal Big Tobacco would certainly want in on it. Most people here agree that if Big Tobacco got into the business of selling weed, they would not buy any of it because they would probably limit the THC content and fill it with addictive and dangerous chemicals like they do now with cigarettes. Now imagine if every aspect of your life -- getting health insurance for your family, getting social security, going to the DMV to get a license, paying your taxes, getting safe prescription drugs, even LEO and printing money, were managed by private corporations out only to do what Big Tobacco would do with cannabis if it could. Do you really want that? Better yet, is it even really possible for Ron Paul to implement such plans? Of course it isn't. So what's he going to do instead? He hasn't a clue.

 

[Steaks]

i used to think mccain was a good guy until i found out about how strict he is on drugs. Paul in 08 baby!

 

[hazy]

mccain has never been a good guy and has always been a traitor.
showed his stripes more blatantly with his name on the amnesty bill.

ron paul will get my vote.
i didn't think i could stomach voting republican again, after the bush sellouts.
after the way they did pat buchanan after he won new hampshire.

rep. party:
"oh no!? the people are using democracy(tm) to skirt our democratic(tm) system.!"

 

[BrainBoy]

Pixelante, if you can tell me someone who is a better then Ron Paul then I'd be happy to listen to your opinion. But to me, he's the best thing out there right now.

 

[Pixelante]

Pixelante, if you can tell me someone who is a better then Ron Paul then I'd be happy to listen to your opinion. But to me, he's the best thing out there right now.

He is certainly the best of the Republican candidates. I find that quite depressing myself. The party of small government and minding your own fucking business has become the party of corruption, religious nutjobs, spying and snooping, fearmongering, hate, intolerance, and fascism. It upsets me.

I happen to be partial to the Democrats' Dennis Kucinich myself, and he'll be getting my vote in the primaries just like he did last time.

Michael Bloomberg as an Independent is also a reasonable choice. He's smart, progressive, and has enough money to run for and act accordingly as president without having to behold himself to any special interests.

 

[demonicaardvark]

wouldnt it be awesome if the 2008 presidential race was kucinich vs ron paul? of course knowing the american political system, neither of them will be nominated. but this is a good trend, since its impossible to have a third party we need to get some good candidates for the other 2.

 

[muddy waters]

And you the American taxpayer ends up paying for all of this bullshit! That's the best part. Because political contributions and the two state parties are of course exempt from taxes. The U.S. basically has two national parties (instead of the more typical one) feeding the people nothing but state-approved bullshit (we need to invade Iraq! universal healthcare is infeasible!). You get someone like Ron Paul on the Repub or Mike Gravel on the Dem side going against the state message and they are immediately tarred with the "darkhorse" or "crazy" slurs and the Establishment and media shun them compared to the state-approved darlings. Add to that a "private" media mostly owned by a handful of gigantic corporations and completely in agreement with the state, droning on-message 99% of the time. And to top it off, the state doling out subsidies and tax breaks to the either unsustainable or uncompetitive big oil, big agriculture, big pharmaceuticals industries... Looks like the US won the Cold War but had some second thoughts... there are some benefits to having a state apparatus that functions much like a totalitarian state would, but has all the appearance of democratic institutions.

The libertarian message which is popular here is really pretty immature, self-interested, and short-sighted, when you consider what government must be responsible for and what GOOD government is able to achieve in order to benefit society. Good hospitals, good public schools and libraries, a good post system, good infrastructure for transportation of goods and people... The problem in the United States though is that the state has complete leverage on power and the people are politically autistic, shouting occasionally but unable to mount any real resistance or reign in the government's out-of-control spending on military buildup, corporate welfare, the drug war. But to say that because we have a crazy imperialistic war machine running our foreign policy, we should get rid of the U.S. post office, so we can pay less taxes--it's a little incoherent if not completely insane.

All that being said I do appreciate Ron Paul's anti-war, anti-imperialist rhetoric tearing into the rest of the Republican schmuck candidates from time to time. But no one's winning any nomination if they don't stick to the state-approved message on Iraq ("Don't mention the permanent bases, okaaaaaay??"

 

[Bob Labla]

Do you really want every aspect of your life to be managed or controlled by people who not only don't care about you, but also want to wring every penny possible from you? That's essentially what he advocates. Don't forget that he's a Libertarian, and that means he wants to outsource most local, state, and national government functions to private businesses who have no interest other than making as much money as they can.

How is that different than the government running it?

Also if something were privatized it would open it up for competition. If a company is doing a poor job of running something, another will sprout up to compete with it. If they both suck another will pop up, eventually driving costs down to the bare minumum for profit. with the government running them its not the bare minimum for profit, its whatever the fuck they want.

He's also particularly good at dodging questions surrounding these issues. I've seen him on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Attack of the Show, and on all them he has been extremely talented in managing not to say he wants to abolish a litany of government-run programs that we need to hold this nation together.

Now your just lying. On the end of the colbert report steven named off all about 20 government run organizations having RP raise his hand if he would abolish it. He raised his hand to all...

Also as a "rich guy turned politician" hes sure been a congressmen a long time. In fact he went almost straight from being a doctor in the army to congressmen. You seemed to have seen him on a TV show, then not bothered to any research on his platform and spout out as much BS as you can. Heres why people who are tired of the typical parrot politician that just spouts out all the BS the "yay i love america were the best" voting majority want to hear. He speaks truths. I dont agree with everything, but to have someone in office willing to say this AND who refuses corporate campaign donations along with rational policy like ending the drug war and limited federal government has got my vote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7aFXRAW7mg


edit** oops that one has a stand up bit at the end

 

[muddy waters]

Yes, the invisible hand of the market solves everything.

That's why the Constitution calls for no branches of government, just a free market and a printing press for the money.

I know, we can abolish the Supreme Court and sell it to the highest bidder. Good times.

 

[HCSmyth]

I support a lot of Ron Paul's viewpoints and campaign strategies to target young people disillusioned with the system, but I personally have no intention of voting for him.

Don't get me wrong, he does advocate a lot of positive changes. Chief amongst them is ending the war and fixing all the corruption in the Justice Department and Executive. But more relevant to this forum, he also advocates the legalization/decriminalization of cannabis (in states that pass laws permitting it)!

But at the same time, a lot of the things he wants to do in this country are either outright impossible or outright stupid.

A lot of good points here. I think America may be better off if he does not become president but rather a new breed of Polticians take some of his very strong messages of freedom to heart.

 

[Aestivus]

I just wanted to point out that by D.C. and for that matter presidintial candidate standards, Ron Paul is skint.

 

[Liam]

If enough people that would never vote Republican register and vote for Ron Paul in the primaries, he will win.