Ron Paul

I'm flirting with Ron and hoping Rudy doesn't find out. Call me a political hussy. I like Rudy and think he may be uniquely positioned to win. I also know him. I've been in his company on several occasions and hold him in the highest regard. But the more I talk to Ron Paul, the more sense he makes to me. I've ended both my recent conversations with him more intrigued, even enamored, than when we began. I think that's because in a political world epitomized by the constant hedging of candidates scared their one false move will end up on YouTube, Dr. Paul is something of a throwback.

After raising a reported $4.2 million in 24 hours Monday, Ron Paul brings his long-shot, antiwar campaign for the Republican presidential nomination to Independence Mall tomorrow. And what an unusual campaign it is. "It's almost like it's on autopilot, certainly the fund-raising part," the 72-year-old Texas congressman said yesterday, speaking of an effort fueled largely by the Internet. "It sort of feeds on itself. . . . I'm both pleased and surprised. " Consider that the big money push was the idea of a single supporter, working on his own, who thought that Nov. 5, the anniversary of Guy Fawkes' attempt to blow up the king of England in 1605, would be a fine day for a "fund-raising bomb.

Dakota Meyer is a U.S. Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a recipient of the Medal of Honor What was Ron Paul thinking? I read the news coverage surrounding Paul's callous and inane comments about the death of a decorated Navy SEAL at the hands of another veteran with utter and complete disbelief. I knew Chris Kyle; he was a friend and brother of mine. What was Paul thinking? Kyle, a Navy veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who received seven heroism awards by serving as a sniper in combat, saving hundreds of lives, is murdered at a gun range in Texas, and Paul says this by Tweet on Tuesday: "Chris Kyle's death seems to confirm that 'he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.' Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn't make sense.

While some of his Villanova University classmates were partying or catching up with friends - and sleep - on their winter breaks, Ian Dardani sat in his old room in his parents' home in Syracuse, N.Y., telephoning strangers in Iowa. Voters, that is. Dardani was trying to help Ron Paul become president. Dardani, 20, a junior in mechanical engineering, was asking likely Paul voters questions to gauge their support for the Texas congressman on the eve of the Jan. 3 Iowa Republican caucuses.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. " - Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson, meet Ronald Ernest Paul. He is the very soul of a foolish consistency. Meaning that he is willing, often to a fault, to follow his ideology to its logical and most extreme conclusions. In this, the congressman differs from other GOP contenders for the White House and, for that matter, from most politicians, period. Your average pol might rail against the intrusion of government into the private lives of citizens, then turn right around and advocate a law regulating what a gay man does in his bedroom - and see no contradiction.

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Rep. Ron Paul announced Friday that he would run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012, the third attempt for the man known on Capitol Hill as "Dr. No" for his enthusiasm for bashing runaway spending and government overreach. "Time has come around to the point where the people are agreeing with much of what I've been saying for 30 years. So, I think the time is right," said the 75-year-old Paul, who first ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988. Paul made his announcement during an interview on ABC's Good Morning America from New Hampshire, where he held a rally later Friday.

AUGUSTA, Maine - With Mitt Romney's GOP presidential nomination all but decided, Ron Paul supporters took control of the Maine Republican Convention and elected a majority slate supporting the Texas congressman to the GOP national convention, party officials said. The results gave the Texas congressman a late state victory. In votes leading to the close of the two-day Maine convention, Paul supporters were elected to 21 of the 24 delegate spots from Maine to the GOP national convention in Tampa, Fla. The 24th delegate's seat goes to party chairman Charles Webster, who has remained uncommitted throughout the process.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. - The night of the South Carolina primary, Kevin Rouse, a lifelong Republican, was having a blast, celebrating his birthday with friends at his art-house bar here. The following morning, with Rouse's blessing, his friends posted a massive banner covering the entire side of the building: RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT . "I don't think he's going to win, but I think he's good to support," explained Rouse, as he finished straightening out the umbrellaed wrought-iron patio tables after his blowout party.

It's spring, and the marchers are out, right and left, protesting Comcast and the Federal Reserve , taxes and the companies that pay them, or don't. Four days before Ben S. Bernanke gave the first news conference by a Federal Reserve chairman to defend his cheap-money policy, more than 100 descended last weekend on the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia to cheerfully demand that the nation's central-banking system shut down. Supporters of presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas)

On a thoroughly miserable afternoon, with rain pelting their plastic ponchos and a penetrating cold turning their fingers blue, thousands of Ron Paul supporters stood for hours on Independence Mall Sunday, cheering and chanting for their candidate, as undeterred by his long odds of winning as they were by the weather. Though all the other candidates in the Republican presidential primary, except Mitt Romney, have risen to prominence and then tripped, fallen, or withdrawn, Paul has remained at the back of the pack.

Dakota Meyer is a U.S. Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a recipient of the Medal of Honor What was Ron Paul thinking? I read the news coverage surrounding Paul's callous and inane comments about the death of a decorated Navy SEAL at the hands of another veteran with utter and complete disbelief. I knew Chris Kyle; he was a friend and brother of mine. What was Paul thinking? Kyle, a Navy veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who received seven heroism awards by serving as a sniper in combat, saving hundreds of lives, is murdered at a gun range in Texas, and Paul says this by Tweet on Tuesday: "Chris Kyle's death seems to confirm that 'he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.' Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn't make sense.

THE HOUSE BAND at the Republican National Convention did a fine job Tuesday of setting the mood amid deep tensions between Mitt Romney , now his party's nominee for president, and primary foe U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. The band, just before controversial new RNC rules steamrolled Paul in the nominating process, belted out Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me," followed by Delbert McClinton 's "Standing On Shaky Ground. " What followed was enough booing and chanting to make you think you were in a Philadelphia stadium during a losing season.

THE LAST TIME they held the political conventions in Florida was 1972. It was the summer that I turned 13 years old. I was falling in love for the first time. With politics, that is. Forty years ago, it was Miami Beach and not Tampa that was the humid and pulsating heart of U.S. politics. Terrified by the violence and unrest of the 1968 Democratic confab in Chicago, both parties saw that beachside city of imposing rococo resorts as the last safe place in America. The GOP convention was utterly forgettable except for the sight of Sammy Davis Jr. hugging the awkward President Richard Nixon.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Ron Paul has given up on becoming president, but loyal supporters are promising to promote the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman's principles at the Republican National Convention this summer, a potential complication for Mitt Romney's goal of a peaceful coronation. Paul backers have taken over state Republican conventions in Nevada and Maine, and had a strong showing during the weekend in Iowa, aiming to increase their voice and clout at the nominating convention in Tampa, Fla. "We want to send Ron Paul-inspired folks to that convention to show we're not going away," says Iowa Republican David Fischer, a top Paul backer in the state.

WASHINGTON - Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas and a favorite of tea partyers, effectively ended his presidential campaign Monday but urged his supporters to continue working at the state party level. In an e-mail to supporters, Paul urged his libertarian-leaning backers to remain involved in politics and champion his causes despite the apparent end of his presidential aspirations. "Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted," Paul said in his statement.

AUGUSTA, Maine - With Mitt Romney's GOP presidential nomination all but decided, Ron Paul supporters took control of the Maine Republican Convention and elected a majority slate supporting the Texas congressman to the GOP national convention, party officials said. The results gave the Texas congressman a late state victory. In votes leading to the close of the two-day Maine convention, Paul supporters were elected to 21 of the 24 delegate spots from Maine to the GOP national convention in Tampa, Fla. The 24th delegate's seat goes to party chairman Charles Webster, who has remained uncommitted throughout the process.

Here is the percentage of the vote each GOP candidate won Tuesday. Connecticut primary Candidate % of Vote Mitt Romney 67.3 Ron Paul 13.5 Newt Gingrich 10.3 Rick Santorum 6.9 90% of returns counted Delaware primary Candidate % of Vote Mitt Romney 56.5 Newt Gingrich 27.1 Ron Paul 10.6 Rick Santorum 5.9 100% of returns counted ...

The price for "pre-roll" political advertising — the short ads you have to watch before featured videos on Web news sites — has nearly doubled, to $45 to $50 per 1,000 online views, from about $25 six months ago, said Rick Masterson, cofounder of CampaignGrid L.L.C., the Fort Washington-based, Republican-oriented online advertising consultant. The new price is five times 2010 levels. Thank (or blame) the spread of Internet-by-smartphone, the social-media personal-data explosion, and especially the Supreme Court and its partisan Citizens United decision that eased campaign-spending limits, inflating political ads and rates.

On a thoroughly miserable afternoon, with rain pelting their plastic ponchos and a penetrating cold turning their fingers blue, thousands of Ron Paul supporters stood for hours on Independence Mall Sunday, cheering and chanting for their candidate, as undeterred by his long odds of winning as they were by the weather. Though all the other candidates in the Republican presidential primary, except Mitt Romney, have risen to prominence and then tripped, fallen, or withdrawn, Paul has remained at the back of the pack.

SCHAUMBURG, ILL. - Front-runner Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary with ease last night, trumping Rick Santorum in yet another industrial-state showdown and padding his already-formidable delegate lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Romney triumphed after benefitting from a crushing advantage in the TV-ad wars, and as his chief rival struggled to overcome self-imposed political wounds in the marathon race to pick an opponent to face President Obama in November.