I think what needs to happen is that Ron Paul needs to clear the air on this once and for all, since it keeps coming up. He needs to track down the author of those stupid and vile articles and get that person to own up to what he did, which from where I sit looks like this: person volunteers (or even is paid--I don't know) to author and publish a newsletter, but attaches his own vile viewpoints to those of the person in whose name he is publishing; person whose name is on the masthead foolishly chooses not to be bothered with what is going out under his name, even going to the point of electrically signing notes that he himself did not author (or read); a tempest in a teacup is dried, packaged, and sold, and then re-sold and re-sold and re-sold, since it evidently has no date of expiration.

David, I would think you would be somewhat sensitive to the fact that this kind of thing could and does happen. It is not at all an infrequent thing that those who want to champion one's cause in public end up skewing and bending the message toward their own beliefs, and many times those beliefs, when untangled from the hero worship, fly straight in the face of everything one believes. Read back through this board to be reminded of what I mean. (And by that I mean no insult to you or to anyone here, past, present, or future.)

Ed, you think that Ron Paul is a liar about the above. I don't. Here are a few other things I don't think are true about the man: I don't think he is a bigot, a homophobe, or a racist. I also do not believe that a vote for or an interest in Ron Paul should be cast as though it were a vote for (or an interest in spreading) bigotry, homophobia, or racism. That kind of broad-brush tarring and feathering just doesn't sit well with me.

You brought up Herman Cain by way of comparing his plight (self-inflicted I am fairly sure) to that of Ron Paul. You mention that serial sexual predation is a pretty good sign of what is going on underneath the exterior poise. I agree. Loved the quotation that you provided, btw, and I believe in that whole-heartedly. But is it not clear that that exact same charge (serial sexual predation) was heaped upon another contender for the white house less than two decades ago, and that man served two terms that I believe you'd call "pretty good" at least?

There is something to the notion that at heart, many extremely successful businessmen are sociopaths. I'll stand by my earlier statement that I see that particular (sexual) aspect of Cain's personality as just the tip of a troubling iceberg. The other stuff (already mentioned, but apparently hiding in plain sight in the weird media world we live in) is far more troubling to me. At least there appears to be no chance that Cain will resurface.

You mention that Ron Paul recently stormed out of an interview, which to you makes him a prima donna, etc. The uncut footage of that incident makes it clear that things were edited to make his reactions look far worse than they actually were. The guy is no stranger to media manipulation of footage, events, polls, and facts: crowd booing at speech was actually overdubbed sound, piped in from a different occasion, "by accident"; second-place finish in polls went unmentioned in favor of talking about the first, third, fourth, and seventh-place winners; debate moderators guffaw while asking disrespectful questions; etc.

(btw: It could not be more clear that the media wants Mitt Romney to be the nominee of the GOP. Look no further than their insistence for the past six years on using the term "frontrunner" in front of his name with every single mention, even when the man was way down in the polls.)

A couple of things that I do believe are true:

This country is being marched to war with Iran. Ron Paul is against that.

This country has been overtaken by sociopathic businessmen. Ron Paul is against letting them have their way with us all unimpeded.

etc.

Herring405