Re: the newsletter, the problem as I see it is that Ron Paul was foolish (twenty some years ago) to let a newsletter go out under his name without strictly vetting each and every article published there. This issue has been brought up time and again, often to the exclusion of everything else the guy wants to talk about, and he has always steadfastly denied that the sentiments expressed there represent anything like what he believes. The existence of those stupid articles (written by someone else but published in a circular that carried Ron Paul's name on the mast) is a "crack in the armor" to be sure, but does not cause me to worry about what might happen should he find his way to the White House.

Herman Cain, on the other hand, does (or did) worry me, and his sexual escapades are just the tip of a very bleak iceberg in my opinion, at least as concerns the possibility of his being elected to the office. His tightness with the Federal Reserve and with the Washington lobbying business are worrisome in the extreme. I may be in the minority here, but I honestly don't care who a presidential candidate has sex with (and yes, I know, it's not quite as simple as that, since there are harassment allegations as well as affair allegations, and it all piles up and gets mixed together since we weren't there and can only know what is said). But my point is, we know for a fact that this man worked as a lobbyist for the restaurant industry, and that he has long been in cahoots with the Federal Reserve. As resume for the job of running the country, I find this more troubling than the sex stuff.

I want to see real, earnest dialogue taking place on a national level about things like the so-called Patriot Act, and the TSA, and the imperial presidency that we are inching (or possibly footing) toward, and about foreign policy being run by hawks, and about internal politics being owned by corporations. I don't see anybody else in the presidential race really addressing these things, and while I don't hold out hope that the guy will actually be elected, I do appreciate the fact that he stands his ground when challenged, again and again, about the same old news that he has already refuted, both long ago, and again, and again, and tomorrow again.

Herring405