NewscomaGot A Two-Pack Habit And A Motel Tan

I’ve been thinking about Ron Paul. Not sitting around pining over his fund-raising success this week, but pondering about his message overall.

I’m thinking that some folks are starved to hear someone talk about the war and not just talking around it with grand declarations like many of the candidates for president are doing.

I don’t understand why politicians don’t get that folks can handle frank talk, but I digress. And, as I’ve said before, it’s amazing for me to hear people treat him like a rock star. Ironically, I hear more people talk about Ron Paul and Bill Richardson than all of the other candidates, which I find to be very different than what I see in the mainstream media.

But, in many ways and here is where I’m going to piss some of you off, I cannot see him winning the Republican nomination. And I think in the American psyche, we love the plain spoken underdog and Paul does fit that category but the man has baggage. Southern Beale touched on many of these things in a post from earlier this week.

And, alas, here is why I think he is resonating with people and they like him. He’s blunt and he’s talking about a very unpopular war. Don’t get me wrong, I like it when he puts the other GOP candidates on alert during the debates when they talk about the war. But we live in a nation that for seven years anytime the White House Administration didn’t like they way things were going they would throw out emotional items that people pay attention to like illegal immigration, gay marriage, the right to choose issues to totally side-track what was really going on.

And, Paul’s camp knows that right now people want to talk about the war and that we need to take care of things at home, but what about the other things.

I also believe Paul’s blunt talk is the reason why Fred Thompson hasn’t been the rock star for the GOP during this campaign recently.  Paul is doing the plain spoken thing that Fred Thompson, logistically, has been known for and he’s beating the lawyer/actor/former senator in that race hands down. Thompson looks like an insider, which he is.

And, with this happening, isn’t it proof that people are seeing through the fabrication of political consultants a bit more than they used to. Paul has taken some of Thompson’s thunder.

From CBS’s website today:

The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high.

Paul is saying these things out loud and I’m glad, quite frankly, but, anyway you look at it, he’s still extremely conservative and doesn’t hit it out of the park for me for all the other reasons. As for his message about the war, yes, he has hit a home run. But solo shots don’t always win games now do they?

And I ask rhetorically, do voters look at the whole package? Or do they pick and choose the one or two issues that rings true for a national leader for them?

The field of candidates for president on both sides is completely underwhelming. I was asked at a fund-raiser last night where my hat was. I had to back up and say that I didn’t know.

Politics in Washington is standing still.  Congress, run by the Dems, hasn’t impacted anything. The president is still running amok.  And polls one year out, in my opinion, are meaningless.  Give it three months and they will have more weight.

But Paul is making it interesting as I sit on the sidelines. I just don’t think he’s going to be standing on the stage at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul next September with balloons falling from the ceiling, men and women in the crowd wearing little elephants on their lapels.

I just don’t think it’s going to happen.