Politicians From Texas

"You'll never get mixed up if you simply tell the truth. Then you don't have to remember what you have said, and you never forget what you have said."

"Don't try to go too fast. Learn your job. Don't ever talk until you know what you're talking about... If you want to get along, go along."

"When Ron Paul said inflation was the hidden tax, I yelled at the screen, "He's right! Follow up: This is a key comment!" Instead the moderator, other candidates, and the crowd just stared at him and probably just wanted a baked potato with their cheese burger."

"Giuliani is pro-trade. Paul is an isolationist."

"McCain's yesterday's maverick. This is serious maverickism, Ron Paul."

"What the founders knew is that you can get any decent person in there, you give them unchecked power, and they become a monster. And that's why I'm just as scared if Hillary has these powers to imprison Matt Drudge, as Giuliani have these powers... Ron Paul has always talked about these issues, and it's amazing to see, he's on the other side, but I have a lot of respect for what he's saying. And he has supporters really from both parties who are passionate about him because he's saying things like, we don't need an empire, let's just give up our oppressing nations all over the world and just have a republic."

"Thomas Jefferson lives. He's Ron Paul."

"Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, the most outspoken opponent of current U.S. immigration policy, finished fourth with 14 percent. Former Wisconsin governor Tommy G. Thompson was sixth at 7 percent."

"For his spokesman to call white racialism a "small ideology" and claim white activists are "wasting their money" trying to influence Paul is ridiculous. Paul is a white nationalist of the Stormfront type who has always kept his racial views and his views about world Judaism quiet because of his political position."

"Lobbyists don't even bother going to his office. If their scheme doesn't fall among the federal government's enumerated powers under the Constitution, they know perfectly well that there is no chance Ron Paul will support it."

"...he is arguing for and in fact defending the 9/11 terrorist attack, by finding a plethora of faults in our foreign policy, and in the way we handle the war on terror here in the home front and in the Middle East which he believed justified the terrorists' attacks killing thousands of innocent Americans... If we examine the reactions of pro-Paul haters of America to the published article I have mentioned, we find no brain, only emotional kicks... Another fan of Paul thought Paul was the smartest candidate because unlike the other candidates, to defeat the enemy, he wants to study and know first the enemy. No, talking of who is smart and who is not, he is not even a shadow of his nemesis Rudy Giuliani. A scatterbrain does not compare to Giuliani who is surging ahead in the polls without looking back. Sorry to disappoint a rabid fan... Paul claims to be the only enforcer of the U.S. Constitution. His followers are duped into believing that he is. He is not – he is a defiler if not a violator of the Constitution... Note that under this Act, our financial obligations to the UN, the sending of troops to troubled spots in the world at the call of the UN are, among others, mandated by the Constitution... My initial advice to him at this distance and I hope his handful of followers will get it too is, don't be a glutton for public scorn even if you thirst for public accolade as champion of the taxpayers by attacking the United Nations in violation of the Constitution. It does not make a hell of sense."

"He has the newest and the oldest campaign message there is: freedom matters. It is no surprise to me that the GOP establishment — now one of the most powerful forces against individual freedom in this country — is so panicked by his message. They should be."

"The phrase "honest politician" is an oxymoron; yet in the sense that Paul never, ever votes against his stated principles -- which are libertarian and include the belief that much of our federal government, from the IRS to the Department of Education, and the massive taxes that support it, should be abolished -- the phrase describes him... The same beliefs that cause him to vote against every single appropriations bill in Congress also carry over to his private life. He intends, for example, to refuse his congressional pension. He would not let his children take out federally subsidized education loans. He actually returns money each year from his congressional office -- some $50,000 last year."

"Mr. Paul isn't going to be president. He trails in national polls, in no small part because his lack of a proactive foreign policy makes him an unserious candidate in today's terror world.... His more kooky views (say, his belief in a conspiracy to create a "North American Union") and his violent antiwar talk have allowed the other aspirants to dismiss him."

"I don't think he can be elected president, but I think he's the only guy who really understands monetary policy, economic policy, the proper role of the state, the proper role of the U.S. in the world. On the other hand, the world is changing pretty dramatically before our eyes. I wouldn't rule out anything right now. But if you asked me who is speaking truth to power, it's Ron Paul."

"The question serious supporters of a real war on terror must now ask is: will continuing the fight in Iraq help reverse this trend or cement it for decades to come? Is the war making us less secure and the world much less safe? Would withdrawal or continued engagement makes things better? At the very least, it seems to me, this question should be on the table in the Iraq debate. And yet the Republicans - with the exception of Ron Paul - don't even want to talk about it. Until they do, they are not a party serious about national security."

"I agree with Ron Paul, we marched in there, we can march out."

"I think Ron Paul has established his legitimacy in this race."

"He may have become at last what he has always deserved to be: the most respected member of the U.S. Congress. He is also the only Republican candidate for president who is truly what all the others pretend to be, namely, a conservative. [...] Until now, the GOP has been able to contain Paul by pretending he wasn't there. But the silent treatment can no longer stifle this soft-spoken man. He has been proved right too often."

"He's fantastic... This guy - he's a Republican - and he says listen, when I become president, I'm taking us out of Iraq, I'm taking us out of everywhere in the world, because what good has it done us being in these fucking Middle Eastern countries? Because they hate us, I'm taking us out of all these wars, and we're done. And he goes, I'm not an isolationist, I'm not afraid to use the military where it's needed. But to sit in these extended fucking wars, draining the economy - and if we stay or we leave, the same goddamn thing happens: nothing! So let's leave. And people love this guy when he talks, he makes sense."

"I thought Mr. Paul captured it the other night exactly correctly. This war is dangerous to America because it's based, not on gender equality, as Mr. Giuliani suggested, or any other kind of freedom, but simply because of what we do in the Islamic World – because ‘we're over there,' basically, as Mr. Paul said in the debate."

"Let me tell you Ron, there are a lot of people out there in the Republican primaries, trying to seize the mantle of Ronald Reagan...but when it comes to economic issues, you are the only guy out there that really is delivering the same message that Ronald Reagan delivered for 30 years."

"[Ron Paul is the] one exception to the Gang of 535."

"What's so interesting about Congressman Ron Paul is, you appear to have a consistent principled integrity. Ah, Americans don't usually go for that..."

"If he could, Ron Paul would abolish three-quarters of the government, which works out to meaning that about three-quarters of what Ron Paul says falls into the "impractical dreamer" category. That leaves one-quarter -- but that fraction of his agenda is, no pun intended, on the money."

"If Ron Paul gets anywhere near the nomination, I would certainly support him. He's the only one that I've seen in American politics that seems to have a clue about what's going on in the world."

"Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defence. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country."

"What he's done -- what his supporters have done -- is astonishing... You can't dismiss the power of one man standing up with a powerful message... Washington insiders don't know what to make of it.""

"Ron Paul's libertarianism has plenty of room for nativism and racism because so much of it does sound like a Pat Buchanan-style call for America to return to a golden age of white privilege. Paul isn't a futurist, like the libertarians who write hilarious odes to the coming "singularity," when we'll all become immortal cyborgs. He's a goldbug. He's a deeply religious anti-abortion small-town country doctor who basically wants the government to operate as it did in 1837."

"I'll worry about Ron Paul if he gets to the general election."

"Ron Paul is our hero in the Congress."

"...Ron Paul was the only one who sounded like a person instead of a politician -- no small feat for a presidential candidate... He was certainly talking sense tonight."

"Racism, homophobia and conspiracy theories about AIDS, Israel, the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission. Just another day in the work of Aryan Nation, USA? It sure sounds like it. But no, they are some of the ingredients in the pre-1999, pre-Internet newsletter of Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate who now tries to portray himself as a libertarian. [...] Ron Paul claims that the newsletter was published in his name, but written by others and he didn´t pay close attention to what was written since he was working full time. Fascinating defence. So he trusted those writers to write in his name to such a degree that he didn´t even check what they wrote?"

"After Mr. Paul spoke, it seemed half the room booed, but the other applauded. When a thousand Republicans are in a room and one man of the eight on the stage takes a sharply minority viewpoint on a dramatic issue and half the room seems to cheer him, something's going on. Ron Paul's support isn't based on his persona, history or perceived power. What support he has comes because of his views. As he spoke, you could hear other candidates laughing in the background. They should stop giggling, and engage in a serious way."

"...signs for this voter revolution can be seen through the highs and lows of current political polarities. I believe it was felt through the surge of the constitutional community supporting Rep. Ron Paul. I believe it was felt in evangelicals' and conservatives' frustration with our present presidential picks.... America has some good congressmen and senators, like Ron Paul... A voter revolution should usher in politicians who make sweeping and radical changes, like disposing of the unconstitutional IRS and replacing it with a Fair Tax. These are the types of leaders who genuinely commit to the America established by our Founders, drastically cut government waste, immediately stop pork barrel spending, reject political perks and lobbyists, quit borrowing from other nations (like China), cease imperialism and nation building, lessen the flow of so much government aid overseas and bring back production and pride in American commerce..."

"There are 535 people on Capitol Hill whose job it is to write the laws that govern all of us, and he is one of them. There are 535 people on Capitol Hill whose job it is to preserve the constitution, and he is one of them. There are 535 people whose job it is to preserve our liberties, and he is one of them. But in his heart, and in his head, in his character, and in his intellect, in what he has done, and in what he will become, the Thomas Jefferson of our day, Ron Paul, is one of us."

"Is it any wonder that neo-Nazis are flocking to his campaign? But Paul is against the war in Iraq and he wants FREEDOM! So that must make his racism okay."

"This courageous and quiet Congressman has made a worldwide name for himself as the defender of liberty in this country… a persistent fighter for the reduction of the power of bureaucrats everywhere… and one politician who cannot be bought by special interests."

"I think I'm fondest of Ron Paul… He's the only person I agree with on foreign policy."

"We'd love it if we could all just come home and not worry about the rest of the world, as Ron Paul says. But the problem is, they attacked us on 9/11. We were here; they attacked us. We want to help move the world of Islam toward modernity so they can reject the extreme..."

"I thought Mayor Giuliani's intercession there was appropriate, and frankly, very, very excellent. I really appreciated it. Because we should never, never believe that we brought on this conflict. This is an evil force that is trying to destroy everything we stand for and believe in. And this is a transcendent struggle. That's why I want to be president of the United States."

"You're working for the most honest man in Congress."

"Ron Paul doesn't just talk about being pro-life, he acts on it. His voting record truly is impeccable and he undoubtedly understands our constitutional republic and the inalienable right to life for all."

"You can't say it's because we put troops in Iraq, over the no-fly zone, because they tried to blow up that same building back in '93, before all these skirmishes over the no-fly zone. You can't say that particular argument."

"Ron Paul is on the floor blasting more debt, more appropriations, more spending, more credit in the market. That is what caused the problem. Ron Paul is right. There I said it."

"A the lot of people think like you, I dare not say I‘m one of them."

"The person of the year: Ron Paul, a physician-politician. He injected the presidential campaign with a dose of truth serum. Paul's straight talk on Iraq, and his straight talk on the Constitution, as Buchanan pointed out, and the limits of government have made him an Internet phenomena. In fact, Paul has become an independent force in the nation's life."

"Knowing Ron Paul and having talked to him, I think he's a very fair guy I just think that a lot of folks do not understand the Libertarian platform. I've read Ron Paul's whole philosophy, I also understand what he's saying from a political standpoint and why people are attacking him. If you scare the folks that have the money, they're going to attack you and they're going to take it out of context. What he's saying is really really threatening the powers that be and that's what they fear."

"By equating the Civil Rights Act, which expanded American civil liberty, with the Patriot Act, which reduced it, on the grounds that both are federal laws with sanctions, Ron Paul displays the moral idiocy of someone who declares that a person who pushes a little old lady out of the path of a bus is just as bad as a person who pushes a little old lady into the path of a bus, because both are equally guilty of pushing little old ladies around."

"He doesn't strike me as the kind of person that's tapping into those elements of American public opinion that might lead towards a sustainable move in the libertarian direction."