Also ties to the militia movement, and a history of borderline racist remarks.
Also: [link]
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
When I was in Florida, one of my cousins (one I hadn't seen in about 30 years) was stumping hard for Ron Paul. I hadn't heard of him before that and this is the first I've heard his name mentioned by someone other than my cousin.
Bat. Shit. Crazy.
I'm not sure what his reasoning for this is but he's generally a super liberal and mostly logical kind of dude. So, what's Ron Paul's brand of crazy?
That's weird. Maybe he's looking at his opposition to the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq. There is also a lot of stuff about not catering to special interests that everybody says. His other stands tend not to be very liberal, repealing existing gun control, greatly weaken the FDA, greatly weaken environmental protections, withdraw from the UN, strongly pro-life, dismantling social security, and I believe dismantling Medicare although I'm not sure on that one.
I've heard now that Pat Robertson is endorsing Rudy Giuliani. I don't know if that is help or hindrance, but I sure didn't expect it.
I'm appreciating the irony of Robertson endorsing the only presidential candidate I've ever seen dress up in drag. J. Edgar Hoover must be smiling down at him right now.
OnTheIssues is a really useful site for sorting out who stands for what. (Based on voting records instead of just campaign rhetoric, which is nice.)
The sad thing is, compared to the other *Republican* candidates, Ron Paul is not "batshit crazy."
ETA important party identifier
Is Ron Paul the one who charms the pants offa Jon Stewart? No, that's some other Repub white guy, right? Anyway, I love watching Jon be totally charmed by people he disagrees with violently; you can see him practically drawing hearts on his desk whenever John McCain drops by.
My brother likes Ron Paul because he is (to vastly oversimplify) pro-medical marijuana. While I know where my brother is coing from, the marijuana stance does make up for the other stuff.
I want to say that's Joe Biden, Nutty.
Maybe he's looking at his opposition to the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq.
I think a lot of people have been taken in by this -- as if it makes him a more Dem-friendly Republican, or something. Also, he seems to be working a lot of the "maverick" appeal that McCain had before he started toeing the party line.