the Ron Paul question...

i see the arguments as valid, both for and against the man.

"against" because he'll sever social services almost to the bone... and he'll do so during a time they'll be more needed than ever as the EU implodes and more U.S. municipalities grow insolvent.

"for" because he'll gut the defense budget, and put a stop (or at least a cessation) to the paranoid fascist police state we're rapidly becoming.

ultimately for me, until I hear more about his energy plan, i'm undecided on him...  if Paul thinks the free market will just seamlessly solve the energy crisis on its own without government help, he's more of an idiot than i'd ever have guessed.  Or he just doesn't understand - or accept - what we face. That's a very scary position to take for the leader of the "free" world, as we witness the world's spare capacity drawing down to a drip.

I'm not naive. I get why we spend 660+ billion dollars each year on the military. The defense budget is the only part of government that keeps getting a raise, and that is because its main function (for decades) is to keep bringing the oil safely home to all Western nations. NATO's geostrategy is absolutely ALL about energy, and that's why the Pentagon budget remains so bloated during a time of profound austerity already. ... Paul doesn't agree that it should be that way. He wants to close a lot of bases. That would usher in a major change to how the world oil pie gets divied up. I do hope Paul understands that the "drill baby drill" mantra is quite hollow ... Because any way you slice it, this continent does not have the reserves, nor the production capacity to cut imports very much at all. It's basic arithmetic, and that is the plain truth to anyone looking at the EIA's own data of flow rates on these various "heavy oil alternatives."

I like a lot of what Ron Paul says... But with "them" likely holding Congress, a Paul presidency would most definitely shock the system, ...   the problem is  I'm not sure this country is healthy enough to survive the surgery, and may not come out of anesthesia. The surgery I speak of would be cutting the cord to multi-national investment banks. Because make no mistake about it: when the next Lehman happens (BofA? Deutsche?), if it comes under a Paul presidency? It's domino time.

As for the racism dart they keep trying to pin on him, not buyin' it. At least not at this point. ... He was a fool to not take his name off that publication, sure, but I don't believe the man is racist. (though I'll admit his uptight reaction in "Bruno" was priceless).